Autumn Leaves
by aftermath24
Summary: It was a comfort that not many people had – to be able to pinpoint the exact moment their brains decided to go insane. For Izuku Midoriya, he'd be able to point at this moment with great confidence - the moment he saw nothing but empty clothes, and, instead of the classmate or even that loud blonde boy that he'd accidentally fallen on, a rat and a cat glaring at each other.
1. Autumn Leaves

(Crossposted on AO3)

* * *

It was a comfort, Izuku thought grimly, that not many people had – to be able to pinpoint the exact moment their brains had given up and decided to go insane. It was a small comfort, but it was also the _only_ comfort he could hold on to as he looked with horror past the smoke that faded just as quickly as it had come.

An abandoned tank top on the floor. A blue button-down shirt slowly falling through the air. Empty clothes, and no sign of Todoroki, nor of the loud blonde boy, but –

A yellow cat, and a red rat, both somehow looking much more exasperated than any animal Izuku had ever seen in his life.

Different thoughts came slamming into his mind after a moment of gaping – the loudest among them made Izuku smile despite the chaos around him.

 _Could this be my quirk?_

* * *

 _Early morning of the previous day, just past sunrise_

Izuku hoped his uniform pants wouldn't get too dirty as he kneeled outside his tent, checking that he had everything he'd need for the first day of senior high school in his bag. Summer seemed determine to hold on for as long as it could, Izuku noted with amusement, as he looked at the trees surrounding his current "home", all still defiantly green despite the creeping autumn chill. He slung his backpack on, and stood up, sighing at the forest around him.

 _If only I could be as defiant as these trees were when it came to the cold_ , he thought bitterly, pushing aside the sensations of a bubbling fever he felt inside. He'd have to try to find time to buy medicine for that – if he could afford it right now, anyway. Worries for later in the day, maybe when the weather wasn't tauntingly beautiful.

After one last look at himself to make sure he had everything ready (except his tie – he'd spent an hour trying and failing to fix it before just letting it hang loosely), Izuku started his trek to school, hoping the morning walk would cheer him up. The walk to school would be long, Izuku was sure, and he was just hoping he wouldn't get _too_ lost along the way. This was only the second time he was making the trip, after all, the first having been just the day before, to try to test the trek out. It had been an absolute disaster, and he ended up roaming the forest for what seemed like hours before he ended up at some highway at the edge of town. Izuku hadn't always lived in a tent in the middle of a forest near the edge of Musutafu – he used to leave in the suburbs with his mom, but that was before –

His feet stopped abruptly as Izuku took a short breath to calm himself down. Breaking down in the middle of the forest wouldn't help him find his way to school any faster.

He wondered if he was even getting anywhere nearer the school to begin with. He took a few seconds to look at where he had chosen to stop.

 _I don't think I got here when I was exploring yesterday_ , he thought as he took in everything around him, from the large trees that only now started showing signs of fall, to the steep cliff a few meters to his side, which seemed to lead toward a –

 _Was that a house?_

Izuku wasn't sure what to think – _who would want to live in the middle of a –_ he stopped that thought as he recalled his own situation, laughing nervously. It seemed like a nice, large, traditional Japanese house. He wondered who lived there, and why; if they had the money to build such a nice house, surely, they could afford to live in the actual city, after all.

Glad that he left his tent early in anticipation of getting lost, he figured he had time to get a closer look at the house. Izuku smiled as he found a dirt path leading down the cliff, pushing aside any apprehensions of letting his curiosity get the best of him again.

He could see more of the house now, and he did his best to convince himself that that criminals and murderers wouldn't want to live in such a cozy looking house, right?

Right?

He was walking slowly along the perimeter of the building, marveling at how authentic it had looked – _maybe a hobbyist lived here? Someone who liked history?_ – when his attention was caught by bright colors on the wooden porch. Izuku inched closer, smiling to himself as he could make out paintings scattered on the floor.

There were quite a lot of them here – Izuku counted twelve small rectangular frames of canvas – each depicting what seemed to be an animal.

"I suggest you don't touch those. The paint is probably still wet."

Izuku jumped at the stern voice, and would never admit to the small scream he let out. Leaning on one of the now open doors was a pale skinned man with long black hair, dressed in a dark blue yukata with black stripes. The man almost looked shabby, with unkempt facial hair, and eyes that looked like they hadn't slept in decades. His tired gaze bored into Izuku as he tried to find the voice that had seemed to lodge itself deep in his stomach.

"I – I'm sorry, I didn't m-mean to intrude," Izuku said with a polite bow. Izuku didn't dare look up too soon – the man's stare was frightening, if nothing else.

"You can get up now, before you give yourself a bad back," the man said plainly, with what Izuku might have imagined as a bit of amusement in his voice. Izuku followed, slowly rising from his bow, and only hesitating slightly before meeting the man's eyes. Izuku swallowed, his collar suddenly feeling too tight.

 _Had he been caught trespassing? Would he go to jail? No, minors don't go to jail, but he'd still be thought of as a delinquent, right? Would this affect his studies? Oh no – what if he misses his classes today, it'd be a horrible way to start –_

"Please stop," the man grumbled impatiently. Izuku's hands raced up to his mouth as he realized his thoughts hadn't been as silent as he'd hoped. The man raised an eyebrow at Izuku, as if waiting for him to explain his presence, which was fair, Izuku thought to himself. Izuku's nerves were calmed slightly only by the fact that the man seemed more amused than alarmed at his intrusion.

"I just thought that –" Izuku gestured lamely at the paintings on the porch, "that th-these looked really nice, and…"

The man let out a soft hum, his lips turning into a small smirk. If Izuku had found the man's initially neutral impression scary, this new one was downright terrifying. The man didn't move or say anything for a few moments, and Izuku strongly considered just making a run for it and forgetting any of this had happened.

Before he could build up the nerve to do just that, however, the man spoke.

"They're paintings of the Chinese zodiac – are you familiar with that?"

"…oh…oh!" Izuku exclaimed, seeing the relationship between all the paintings now. His eyes swept the figures, and he could see them clearer now that it had been pointed out – one had a black dog, another featured a black dragon. "Yeah, my mom used to tell me stories about them," he clarified sheepishly.

"Is that so?" the man asked with what seemed to be growing interest. He slowly stepped toward Izuku, crouching down closer to the paintings drying on the floor. "Tell me, what stories have you heard?"

Izuku wondered for only a moment why this scary man would be interested in his childhood stories before deciding that indulging the owner of the property he's currently trespassing was a wiser option – not that he'd ever been particularly inclined to take the wise decision too often before.

"Well," he started, trying to recall the stories his mom used to tell him before they both went to sleep, "they say that a long time ago, God invited all the animals in his kingdom to great banquet to celebrate their friendship."

The man considered one of the paintings on the floor, and Izuku's eyes darted to it. It seemed like it was a…. rat? Only the rat was red. _That's strange_ , Izuku thought, _is this some sort of post-modern style –_

"Do continue," the man said as he lifted the rat painting and stood back up, leaning on one of the wooden posts on the porch as he inspected the work. Before Izuku could carry on with his story however, he caught sight of a piece of paper that was hidden under the rat painting – it looked like a crude drawing of...something, something with four legs, and was made with what seemed to be a yellow crayon. Honestly, Izuku thought it looked like something drawn by a four-year-old – all bold and brave strokes, very much unlike the subtler style of the paintings that were –

"That's a cat," the man said plainly, answering the questions Izuku had muttered out loud rather than kept in his head, "drawn by someone who doesn't have the good sense to give up. Do your stories have anything about a cat?"

Izuku put his fingers on his chin, considering the man's question. He let himself relax just the slightest bit, as he tried to recall more of his mom's old stories. "Yes, actually – God tasked the rat with making sure that all the animals in the kingdom knew of the party. The rat hated the cat, however, and decided to play a trick on him by telling him the wrong date for the gathering. While all the animals were celebrating together at the banquet, the cat slept, dreaming of a party that he would never be able to go to…"

Izuku's voice drifted, as he looked away wistfully. He chuckled at himself a moment later, surprised he still felt a bit bad for the cat in the story. He turned toward the man, whose amusement was clearer than it had previously been. The man looked like he was about to say something, but before he could, a voice further in the house interrupted him.

"Aizawa, I'm going to head out now, what time do you – "

Izuku's face shot toward the hallway behind the man in the yukata – _was Aizawa his name_? He knew that voice, and it was only a matter of seconds before he found himself face to face with Shouto Todoroki.

* * *

 _It was at the start of their last semester in junior high school that rumors of a transfer student made their rounds. Strange, considering how close to graduation it already was, but that wasn't even the most interesting part of the rumors._

 _"They say he's the son of some rich business man," his friend, Uraraka – had said as she, Izuku, and their other friend, Iida, huddled by his desk before classes started that day. "I think his name was…Rokotodi? Todaroki?"_

 _"You mean Todoroki?" Iida helpfully supplied. Izuku wouldn't have been surprised if Iida was familiar with the new student's family, since Iida's family was – had been - rich._

 _"Right! That's the name!" Uraraka cheerfully confirmed in what Izuku thought was too loud a whisper for someone in the business of gossiping._

 _Izuku considered the name for a few moments. "Todoroki…they're the ones that own the mall near the city square, right?"_

 _"Yes, as well as a series of restaurant chains," Iida added. "They're business portfolio is quite…diverse."_

 _Izuku hummed. "I wonder why he'd transfer to a public high school so late, though," he wondered out loud, but before any of his friends could offer their theory, the door to the classroom swung open, revealing their homeroom advisor – a plain looking woman in her late 50s – and beside her, a boy with red and white hair parted perfectly down the middle._

 _"Everyone, I'd like to announce that as of this semester, you'll be joined by a new student." The teacher looked at the boy. Izuku thought he could see some nervousness in the way she looked. She aimed a wobbly smile at the boy. "Would you care to introduce yourself?"_

 _The boy gave a curt nod, and made his way forward. He faced the class – Izuku heard faint gasps and giggles from the girls behind him as they whispered to each other._

 _"My name is Todoroki Shouto," he began._

 _At least Izuku and the rest of his class thought he was going to continue…except he didn't. Izuku watched with curiosity as the boy – Todoroki – seemed to survey the class, and his gaze stopped right to meet Izuku's. There was a…something, some sort of sensation that built up, deep in his stomach, as if his own body was goading him to recognize the newcomer. But that was impossible – Izuku would remember if he had met the son of some local magnate. Emotion flashed on the boy's face, but it was too quick for Izuku to determine what it was – maybe he'd ask the boy later. Nobody else in class seemed to have notice, with all the girls chattering among themselves, and the guys no doubt trying to size the newcomer up._

 _"Do you have a quirk?" a boy shouted from the back of the class – Tsubasa – if Izuku remembered correctly. At this, the rest of the room froze, shooting their attention back to the boy. If Izuku were in his shoes, the attention would have made him sweat buckets at best, faint at worst, but the boy kept his expression steady, and nodded dismissively, not willing to expound any further._

 _Izuku couldn't blame him. Quirks were relatively new to the world – his generation was probably just the second or third since people had started to develop these strange powers, and they were only now getting more and more common. Izuku himself didn't have a quirk, and while it was never really a big issue, he was thankful he had been born now rather than later, when probably almost everyone already had quirks. After all, it's not like he needed one more reason for people to shun him._

 _The teacher was quick to try to diffuse the class' excitement and prevent any further interrogation of the new student. "Todoroki, you can sit over there," she said, pointing toward a chair just a few rows behind Izuku. Todoroki nodded (Was this his preferred mode of communication?), and quickly walked to his newly assigned seat, but not before shooting one last quick glance at Izuku._

 _Izuku squirmed in his seat as that first day went on, as if he could feel Todoroki's gaze burning a hole through his skull every few minutes. The first time it happened, he thought he might ask the boy about it, but now it was getting a bit too much and too intimidating for Izuku. Maybe he'd just let it be and wait for it to go away?_

 _During that day's lunchbreak, he sat with Iida and Uraraka as he always did, on a table near the edges of the cafeteria._

 _"What do you think is up with that guy, he keeps looking like he wants to beat you up," Uraraka started, sounding a bit agitated at the thought. Izuku sighed to himself – it wouldn't be the first time someone would want to do that, and it wouldn't be the first time Uraraka sounded like she wanted to pre-emptively beat someone up for it – and let out a weak laugh._

 _"Maybe he finds my hair strange?" he mused to himself, thinking of how uncommon green hair was in the world._

 _"That guy is the last person to judge your hair style," Uraraka answered, clearly unimpressed. "Izuku," she moved a bit closer to Izuku, her voice softening, "you tell us if he gives you trouble, okay?"_

 _Izuku loved Uraraka dearly. If it weren't for her, he probably would still be the butt of every bully's jokes. It only took sending a few of them flying without stop with her quirk before they were too afraid of her to keep picking on him._

 _Izuku smiled at her warmly, satisfied when she smiled back. "I will, don't worry." Izuku reassured her. They ate in peace for the rest of the break, talking about the homework they already had received, and how their winter breaks had gone, but Izuku could still feel the hairs on the back of his neck rising, and he had no doubt that it was due to the unreadable glare Todoroki was consistently sending in his direction._

 _Thankfully, as the days passed, he didn't have to take Uraraka's offer of help, as the staring from Todoroki got less and less frequent. Around a month or so into the semester, it seemed to stop almost completely. Izuku would still catch Todoroki sometimes glancing in his direction, but at those moments, Todoroki would quickly look away and strike up a conversation with the girl seated next to him – Yaoyorozu._

 _Come to think of it, she seemed to be the only person that Todoroki every really talked to. Todoroki never really engaged any of their other classmates aside from gruff one-word replies, or when he couldn't even be bothered to do that, grunts and nods. None of the boys had been able to goad him into revealing his quirk, leading to some rumors that he might have lied when he said he even had one. The girls would always defend him though, so smitten with what they saw as his brooding nature to consider that he might be lying._

* * *

Aizawa was the first to break the tableau that the three of them had frozen into at the porch of the house ( _Todoroki's house?)_.

"I thought that uniform he was wearing was familiar," Aizawa started, his eyes looking at Izuku's clumsily done tie and ruffled jacket. "I assume you know him from school then?"

Shouto shook himself out of his shocked silence (insofar as his almost unchanging expressions could show surprise), and nodded.

"Midoriya, what are you doing here?"

Unlike the other two, Izuku was rather more graceless in recovering from his surprise, mind still catching up with the fact that the house near his tent was his classmate's. Questions raced through his mind – why? For how long?

"…I'm sorry, could you say that again?" he said to the other two, giving them an embarrassed smile.

"You're at my porch. Why?" Todoroki probably didn't mean to sound so intimidating, but it came so naturally to him, with his deep, almost monotone voice.

Izuku considered the question. He wasn't entirely sure he should tell them he lives in a tent not too far away – that seemed like too much information; after all he hadn't even told Iida or Uraraka about his current situation, and he didn't plan to.

"I…uh…" he stammered, trying to swallow through the dryness of his throat, "…I live in the area, and happened to pass by?"

Izuku cursed himself – that wasn't the least bit convincing at all. He still prayed that his luck would hold (futile, considering how it never did), and that the two would leave it at that. Todoroki and Aizawa shared a strange look, and after a moment of suspense (at least for Izuku), Todoroki just shrugged. Aizawa put down the painting he was holding, and walked back into the house, chuckling.

 _Why was he chuckling? Why did Aizawa seem to be so entertained with Izuku, who was clearly caught trespassing on their prop-_

His thoughts skid to a halt at the sound of Todoroki clearing his throat. Izuku looked up at him quickly, almost giving himself whiplash. He had never been this close to the other boy, never even really talked to him before, but now that he was able to get a look, something about Todoroki seemed less intimidating and more…familiar?

To his surprise, Todoroki was the first to break their staring contest, clearing his throat again as he looked at a tree behind Izuku.

"Well, since you're here…would you like to go to school together?" Todoroki almost sounded shy as he asked.

It took a few moments for the question to register in Izuku's mind ( _honestly, all Todoroki had ever done before was glare)._ When it did, though, he couldn't keep his expression from brightening into a smile.

"Of course, I would!" Izuku cheerfully replied, hoping he didn't sound over enthusiastic. The probability of getting lost decreased radically if he followed Todoroki after all.

"Let's get going then," Todoroki said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he made his way forward, seeming to expect Izuku to follow him.

Izuku did.

* * *

It was a while before either of them said anything, both content to just make the journey in complete silence. Izuku looked around as he followed Todoroki, trying to take stock of every turn he made so that he could get to school on his own next time without getting lost. As they got closer to what Izuku assumed was the edge of the forest area, more and more trees were showing signs of fall – leaves morphing from vibrant greens to muted yellows. It wouldn't be long until the entire forest would look like it was on fire.

 _Mom would have loved to see this place_.

They eventually made their way onto a main road, with actual pavements and a few cars running through the streets. It was sunny, but it wasn't warm, much to Izuku's chagrin. He wished the high school uniform were warmer – at the rate things were going, the chill he was feeling inside him would turn into a fever before the day was up, and that would be nothing but trouble. He sometimes felt (more than saw) Todoroki taking quick glances at him whenever he would shiver, but if the boy noticed his discomfort, he said nothing.

Izuku, wanting to distract himself from the undue tiredness creeping in his body, tried to think of something to talk about. _Maybe I can ask him how his summer break was? But then he'd ask me how mine was and I don't really want to talk about it…Maybe get to know him? What's something obvious about him that I can ask about? No, the scar on his face would be too rude, and asking him about his hair might make it seem like Izuku was teasing him –_

"What were you and Aizawa talking about?"

Izuku sighed in relief when Todoroki was the one who thought of a topic first. Izuku smiled, recalling the conversation – it was strange, he supposed to start talking to a stranger about something so mundane, but he did like stories, especially those his mom used to tell him.

"He was showing me his paintings of the Chinese zodiac," Izuku started, recalling the delicate tones of each animal, "he's very good."

"Aizawa has been painting since he was a child," Todoroki said.

Izuku realized he hadn't really figured out yet who Aizawa was, at least in relation to Todoroki, so he figured it was as good a question as any to ask.

"You've known him for a long time, then?"

"He's my cousin. A distant cousin, anyway."

Izuku supposed…well, that made sense, though he would never have guessed they were family – there was simply no resemblance, so it must have been _very_ distant. Izuku tried to recall more of his conversation with Aizawa to continue his chat with Todoroki.

"He asked me if I knew any stories about the cat in the zodiac." Izuku would have continued, but Todoroki abruptly stopped walking. Izuku stopped walking too, just a beat after, and looked at the questioning gaze Todoroki was shooting him just a few paces away.

 _Did I say something wrong? Maybe I should continue?_

"I told him what I knew of the story…don't laugh at me, but you know, I always felt bad about the cat in that story," Izuku mused – he thought that would entertain Todoroki too, but as if to prove he knew next to nothing about the boy, Todoroki's face morphed into something much more expressive than Izuku had ever seen before – almost as if he was angry? Disgusted?

Izuku stayed frozen, watching as Todoroki schooled his expression back to the usual blank, and walked calmly past Izuku.

"Cats are horrible, angry creatures. They don't deserve your pity."

Well that…that wasn't at all something Izuku expected Todoroki to say. What had the poor animals ever done to him?

Before Izuku could make any further comment however, Todoroki's expression softened just the slightest bit.

"We're almost at school now, I hope you don't mind if I go on ahead. I'll see you in class."

Izuku looked on passively as Todoroki made his way past the school gate. He hadn't even realized that they were front of the school already. Izuku wondered if he'd get a chance later to talk to Todoroki again and ask him what that was all about, but he doubted it.

He sighed to himself as the sight of Todoroki's distinct hair disappeared behind the main campus doors. Izuku waited a few seconds before allowing himself to follow.

* * *

Autumn Leaves, Eva Cassidy: watch?v=xXBNlApwh0c

Part 1 of the _Nightbird_ Series


	2. Chapter 2

"WHY WERE YOU WALKING WITH TODOROKI?"

Izuku winced from his seat at the cafeteria as Uraraka all but shouted in his ear. He supposed he should have already been expecting this. It was shocking enough that Uraraka even lasted this long, considering the look she'd had when Izuku caught her watching him enter the school gates from their third-floor classroom window.

"Uraraka, please contain yourself, this is most improper," Iida said sternly, as Uraraka sat back down. It was clear she wasn't letting the topic go, however. Izuku wondered how long she would keep seated and stay (relatively) calm before she was shouting again.

"I just ran into him on the way to school," Izuku tried to dismiss, wondering if his lying had gotten any better since that morning's fiasco at Todoroki's house. Then again, it's not like he was lying _completely_ , after all…just leaving some _unimportant_ details out. His friends seemed to consider this. Uraraka seemed less than convinced. Still, if it was enough for them to stop asking how he and Todoroki ran into each other, that'd be great.

"What was it like? He didn't try to do anything to you, did he?" Uraraka narrowed her eyes as she started hovering over Izuku. Honestly, sometimes Izuku wondered if Uraraka was a thug in a past life.

"No…he was…nice?" Izuku wondered if _nice_ was a word anyone in their school had ever used to describe Todoroki.

Iida hummed, gaining their attention. "That is quite interesting…almost unexpected," he said, as he prodded at his rice. "There were a lot of rumors going around near the end of last year that he was usually…less than amicable."

"You mean less than usual?" Uraraka questioned, her bias against Todoroki clear on her face.

 _Had something happened with Todoroki last year? Why hadn't Izuku heard these rumors? All he'd ever seen Todoroki do was stare at him and nap._

Uraraka apparently hadn't heard the rumors either, so she asked Iida to continue. Iida leaned in, beckoning them to do the same. Izuku chuckled inwardly at Iida's guarded expression, shooting glances around before he said anything more.

"I heard this from that one boy in class today – Monoma, I think was his name. He said that some girls from the year just below us went up to Todoroki on the last day of school, and one of them confessed to him. When she tried to embrace him," Iida cringed, as if the next part physically pained him to recount, "he pushed her to the ground and ran away. Most impolite behavior if it was true."

Uraraka gasped, seeming to have been personally offended by Todoroki's actions. Izuku admitted, something like that would be have been strange – not that people confessed to Todoroki, Izuku could admit that Todoroki was _objectively_ attractive, all things considered, but the reaction was so…forceful. Why would he have had to go as far as to push someone away?

"Don't look now," Uraraka whispered to their table, "but there he is, with Yaomomo too."

Izuku, idiot that he was, shot up and looked to the cafeteria entrance, where he saw a distinct head of red and white, beside a hair of wild black hair. What he didn't quite expect was to find Todoroki already looking at him. He quickly ducked, cutting off whatever connection they shared quickly. Somewhere in the pit of his stomach, he felt something rising. Probably fear – Todoroki had seemed mad when they separated earlier, but would he really be that angry over some dumb cat story?

"I don't get what his deal with you is," Uraraka muttered, frustration laced in her voice. "Just this morning you seemed all buddy-buddy, and now he's back to trying to send eye lasers at you." She snorted as she bit back a laugh. "Hey, you don't think that might be his quirk? One of these days, you might actually just die with how hard he stares at you."

Izuku didn't want to think of it. He'd been on the receiving end of a lot of quirks, but that had been years ago – hardly a golden age he'd like to relive.

"Uraraka, you're frightening him," Iida scolded, rather lamely considering he himself looked like he was amused by the thought. After a few moments of chuckling at the thought of Izuku getting shot by eye lasers ( _what kind of friends were they anyway?),_ Iida cleared his throat. Iida gave Izuku a steady look, the kind that screamed _big-brother-mode_. "Anyway, how are things with your father? Are you settling nicely at his home?"

Izuku swallowed, and stared intently at his half-eaten bowl of katsudon. He hadn't told them, or anyone, about his situation. After his mom died just before summer, it was only a few weeks before the landlord of their old house kicked him out. He told everyone he was going to contact his estranged father, and he did…or at least tried to. It was with a lot of hesitation that he went through his mom's old stuff, looking for old addresses or contact details. He eventually found something – an old phone number – but it was to a place his dad had worked at years ago. The person he talked to over the phone promised to try to get in touch with his dad, and Izuku gave her his contact details along with the name of his school. Nothing happened, though – complete radio silence. He could only assume that he was ignored – then again, what had he expected after some fifteen years of absence?

If Izuku was being honest, part of him didn't even want to really reconnect with his dad. He'd only seen his dad in old photos his mom might have forgotten to get rid of. Izuku's mind churned, recalling how all the neighbors and people at school talked about him and his mom, joking that they were just the _"other family"_ – left behind when his mom was going to have Izuku. He never did get to ask his mom if the rumors were true, and he doubted he would have ever wanted to.

For as long as he could remember, it had always just been him and his mom, so he had no other family he could have called to for help. He knew that if he just asked, Uraraka and Iida would move heaven and earth to make his life easier, but he couldn't impose on them – Uraraka lived in a small flat in the city while her parents worked overseas, and Iida's family was just now recovering from hard times, and he couldn't add more worries to their plate. So, he just told them (and everyone else who bothered to ask) that his father had graciously taken him in. He figured it wouldn't be long until he found some sort of job that would allow him to rent even just a bed somewhere in the city. He could live independently, and everyone would be none the wiser.

Still, it was never pleasant to have to lie, least of all to his best friends. Deciding he had stared long enough at his cutlet, he looked back up at them, trying his best to control his voice, hoping it didn't betray his nerves.

"Yeah, everything's great…it was awkward at first, but things are getting better."

Izuku put on the biggest smile he could muster, wishing it would be enough to settle the matter. The less he said, the better.

* * *

The rest of the school day was relatively uneventful – or at least Izuku hoped it was. After lunch, his headaches only got worse – too distracting for him to pay attention to what was going on for the most part. After bidding Iida and Uraraka goodbye, dismissing their worried looks at him and assuring them that he just needed more sleep, he began his dazed walk back to his tent.

The late afternoon sun tinted the sky a pale orange. Somewhere deep in his mind, Izuku mused at how quickly the days were shortening as autumn took over. It seemed like just yesterday when they were all in their last weeks of junior high school, eager for summer to come, but fearing the exams that they'd have to face before freedom. Izuku hummed to himself, letting his tired body bask in the warmth of the soft light – the exams hadn't even been that bad. At least for Izuku, they went without incident except for that one exam when he had to be called out because –

 _Oh. Right._

Izuku scrambled to pull himself out of his memories, blinking away tears he felt building behind his eyes. _Think of something else, Izuku – something more recent? What assignments do we have to do this week?_

That made Izuku grumble. For all that it was the first day of classes, they already had two assignments due by the end of the week. _What topics were they on, again?_

Izuku struggled to try to remember anything he could about his earlier classes, but had little success. All he could remember was… _something about a substitute teacher? And their real homeroom advisor coming in later that week…or was it next week?_

Izuku sighed. He hadn't even been able to really notice who else was in their class aside from the ones he ended up talking to. He'd have to pay more attention tomorrow – maybe he'd get lucky and be able to make friends with some of them. The thought made him feel lighter…but that might just have been his headache.

* * *

The walk back "home" had taken much longer than he thought, but he did get lost in the forest again for good hour. Izuku, to his chagrin, was completely knackered by the time he pushed through the flap of his humble tent. The sun had already set when he got back, so Izuku had to plan the rest of his evening carefully if he wanted to be able to get everything ready for the next day. He wondered hopefully if he could get a head start on his schoolwork.

Izuku sat at the edge of his tent. _It's not so bad_ , he thought to himself. It was the kind that could fit two sleeping adults, and there was enough space beside where he had laid his green sleeping bag to do some school work if he shifted the few boxes of belongings he had around. By the head of his sleeping bag was a photograph of his mom. Well, he knew it was a photograph, but it was all wrapped up in brown paper. Izuku still couldn't bear to look at it months after her death without his heart breaking all over again. Laid beside the picture was a necklace – a simple cotton cord with four dark wooden beads threaded through them.

 _Prayer beads, mom had called them_.

His mom gave it to him as a gift when he was five, but she always said she was just asked to pass it on to him. Izuku never got clear answer from his mom on that one…then again, maybe she was just trying to make a story out of it.

Izuku stared longingly at the sleeping bag – it was hardly comfortable, but he was _so, so tired_ … _maybe he could sneak in just a few minutes of…_

"No!" he shouted, surprising even himself. Izuku sighed. He couldn't afford to be sick. He had to get his schoolwork done as soon as possible so that he could use his free time trying to find a job – that's what he needed for plan-independent-Izuku to take off. He rubbed his face, and tried to shake his tiredness off, convincing himself that all he needed was to wash his face before getting to work.

He rummaged through one of his boxes for a while before finding what he needed – a towel, some soap, fresh clothes. He tried checking the time on his phone only to find that it had run out of battery. He _had been_ planning to charge it during school hours, but it must've slipped his mind, much to Izuku's frustration.

 _Oh well, I guess I'll just have to be careful to not to overslee-_

There was a rustle from outside.

Izuku's head shot toward the closed flap of his tent. _Relax, Izuku, it was just windy today…maybe the leaves are just blowing about and –_

Footsteps. Getting louder and closer. If that wasn't enough to convince Izuku that his worry was justified, there was also the silhouette of two figures, soft against the moonlight, approaching his tent.

 _Oh no. This is how I die. Murdered in the woods by psychopaths…Mom, I'll be seeing you soon…_

Izuku's heart stopped as one of the silhouettes crouched just in front of his tent. He tried to even his breathing and make as little sound as possible. He waited for the figure to strike, to pounce, to rip at his tent, to do anything but –

Nothing was happening.

For what seemed like an eternity, Izuku just stared, frozen by feverish panic as two black figures postured just outside his tent. He swallowed.

 _Izuku, you're a brave boy…you can do this. Maybe you can just run out of the tent as quickly as possible – you're not a tasty meal for forest cannibals anyway…maybe they won't chase you…_

Izuku unattentively grabbed at the prayer beads beside his sleeping bag, and wore them on his neck, as if they were some sort of protective amulet. He slowly crawled toward the tent, trying to build a plan in his aching head. _I'm going to push the flap open, and then…and then…_

He didn't know what he was going to do, but whatever it was would be better than waiting, right?

He reached up, and deciding to just get it over with, flung open the tiny curtain dividing him from his doom, and faced his attacker's -

Eyes.

One grey. One blue.

Izuku thought he heard a familiar deep voice utter his name in confusion, but before he could reply, he felt his head falling, darkness clouding his vision completely.

* * *

 _"Izuku, dear, stop playing with your necklace, you might break it."_

 _Izuku's hand froze at his chest, where he had just been fiddling with –_

 _What was he fiddling with –_

 _He looked down, both to avoid the questioning gaze being directed toward him, as well as to check what it was he had been toying with._

 _Things were blurry at first, but they slowly came into focus – his necklace of beads, hanging close to his chest. He touched the wooden spheres one last time, almost prayerfully, before letting his hands rest on his lap._

 _The leaves littered around his feet sounded satisfyingly crunchy as he swung his legs back and forth from atop the bench._

 _A bench? Where were they –_

 _He surveyed his surroundings, details still fuzzy, but materializing in the distance bit by bit, as if conjured only when he bothered to looked. He was at a park near their house – their old house. He remembers this one – he went here almost every year: always during autumn, when leaves covered the ground like a fiery sea. The first time was when he was three or four, and he was with his –_

 _Izuku swallows. He doesn't have to look beside him to see who's there. He's not sure he wants to._

 _He keeps his eyes trained on the golden leaves around his red shoes. His legs stop swinging. He catches movement from his periphery, hears crisp leaves crackling as something darts just past where he can see. He turns to look only a little too late, but he swears he catches the sight of golden hair running into the trees._

 _He can't stop his hand instinctively reaching to the beads on his chest again. Izuku opens his mouth, and it takes a while for sound to come out._

 _"Mom, can you tell me again where these beads came from?" The sound that comes from his mouth is a voice that's not his – at least it hasn't been his for years now._

 _She hums a soft laugh beside him. Izuku doesn't dare look, but he knows she's smiling warmly._

 _"It was a gift," she begins, in that soft, soothing voice that Izuku longs to hear outside his own imagination, "a gift from someone we knew once, long ago."_

 _Her voice drifts away. Izuku wishes she would tell him more. She does._

 _"A friend. He moved away, but I'm sure he would have wanted you to have it."_

 _The scenery changes quickly – leaves blowing about and fading away, the sun setting at breakneck speed – until Izuku sits on the bench, alone, surrounded by nothing but darkness._

 _In the distance he sees a faint glow of…red? Red eyes? The figure of a dark animal – a wolf? A dog?_

 _The glow calls to him, beckons him to keep looking, to come closer._

 _He does, and with every step, he feels something shifting inside him – like the curtains of a long since abandoned stage slowly rising._

* * *

Consciousness pulled at Izuku gently. He was comfortable – more comfortable than he had been in days. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking to adjust to the dim moonlight filtering around him. The weight of wooden beads on his chest kept him calm for the few moments it took to try to remember how he'd gotten home. Whatever sleep was still in his body was wiped away as he realized that he _wasn't_ home – _this wasn't any room he was familiar with_. He tried to sit up, stopping only when he felt the pounding in his head and the tired ache of his joints. Izuku relented, instead laying himself back down on an unfamiliar futon. He stared at the plain, wooden ceiling, as if it had the answers to all his questions.

Where am I? How did I get here?

He heard the muffled sound of footsteps somewhere nearby. Muted light scattered around him as a wooden door slowly slid open across where he laid. Izuku adjusted his position, this time avoiding any potential headaches from moving too quickly, to try to get a look at who or – he gulped – what was peeking in. He squinted, and it was a few seconds before Izuku made out a head of two-toned hair – red and white – along with a pair of mismatched eyes that were staring straight at him from the gap.

"Midoriya, is everything alright?" the boy at the opening asked, voice low and steady.

He gaped for a moment before it all came back to him – where he was, and how he had ended up there.

 _Was this – was he at Todoroki's house?_ Izuku had vague memories of Todoroki crouched outside his tent, though he himself wasn't sure if he had merely imagined the amused expression of Todoroki's companion – Aizawa – as he (embarrassingly) passed out.

"Midoriya, is everything alright?" Todoroki repeated himself from where he stood, peeking through the gap in the wall. The voice brought Izuku back to reality, but it wasn't enough to jump-start his brain.

"Todoroki?" Izuku asked dumbly.

Izuku heard a soft sigh coming from the door, and he didn't have to guess that if he could see any better, Todoroki would be sporting a grimace. Todoroki slid the door further open, and Izuku turned away to avoid the bright lights from the room beyond. Todoroki made his way to the side of the futon Izuku was on, and quietly seated himself on the wooden floor. Izuku angled himself toward the newcomer slowly, not sure what to say.

"How's your fever?" Todoroki asked in a soft voice, unlike anything Izuku had expected from the boy before. It sounded far too intimate and familiar to have possibly come from Todoroki, but somehow, Izuku found himself thinking, it sounded _correct_ – as if it were the voice of someone he'd known all his life.

"I take it by your spacing out that your fever's still quite bad."

Todoroki, leaned over him. Izuku couldn't even argue with his classmate - his head was throbbing, and his body ached all over. The boy was considering him again, sending him something not unlike the glare he'd shot at Izuku in junior high school, but now that Izuku bothered to look, it didn't seem to be a glare - at least not this time. There was _something_ about it, like the two of them shared a big secret, and Izuku couldn't help the small smile that tugged at his face.

He'd blame it on the fever later, but the disarming closeness he suddenly felt with the boy pushed him to break the silence.

"I've been living in a tent for a while now…but I only moved to the woods here a few days ago. I had no idea anyone lived so close by." Izuku's voice was quiet, and even as he turned away from Todoroki to train his gaze at the ceiling again, something told him the other boy was listening intently to his every word.

 _In for a penny, in for a pound_ , Izuku whispered to himself. It didn't feel particularly difficult, and he wondered why it seemed so easy to keep talking about, well, everything now that he'd started. The other boy remained silent, and Izuku took that as his cue to keep talking. He talked – probably more than he should have. He talked about how after his mom died, he didn't really have anywhere to go where he wouldn't be a burden. He talked about his plan to camp until he could save enough to live properly on his own. Somehow, he even found himself talking about his failed attempts to reach out to his estranged father.

Perhaps it really _was_ the fever, or maybe the darkness that made him feel comfortable just talking about all these things. In the back of his mind, he thought of how upset Iida and Uraraka would be if they ever found out Todoroki knew and they didn't, and wasn't that strange – Todoroki, of all people. Someone he'd barely said two words to until today. Something about _this_ Todoroki, quiet and attentive in the dark of night, reminded him of things from a time long ago – children running through fields covered with sunset leaves without any cares in the world. Izuku thought to himself how it would have been nice to have had someone like the Todoroki seated beside him as a friend back in those childhood days, when all the other kids and their parents looked at him with pity and thinly veiled disgust.

Todoroki sat still through everything Izuku said. There was a moment of silence after Izuku had finished, before Todoroki finally spoke.

"We were wondering how you could live nearby," the boy spoke, tone of voice unreadable, "considering our family owns all the land in the area."

Izuku couldn't hold back a chuckle. He wondered if it was normal to find it funny to realize that he had been squatting for days without even knowing. He wondered what that meant for him, though – surely Todoroki's family didn't appreciate a wayward camper on their lands.

"I…I'll pack up as soon as I can, if you want," Izuku started. At the back of his mind, he wondered _where_ he planned to go if Todoroki did ask him to move out of their land, but that was hardly Todoroki's problem. "You're already taking care of me now, I couldn't impose on you or your family any further."

He heard Todoroki shift a little. Izuku wondered what the boy thought of him now that Izuku had practically spilled his guts. Would he think Izuku was pathetic? Stupid for his plans to survive on his own?

"We can talk about how to deal with your situation tomorrow, with Aizawa," Todoroki said, sounding almost shy, "once you're better."

Todoroki's demeanor throughout the day had been surprising. Izuku was having a hard time reconciling this relatively soft-spoken boy and the evil-laser-eye-Todoroki he'd known in the past months.

Neither of them spoke after that, both simply rooted to the floor or the bed. The silence was making Izuku a bit restless – did Todoroki expect him to say something more? Hadn't he shared enough? He couldn't bring himself to sleep either – the boy's presence wasn't particularly calming to Izuku, not to mention the dull aches he still felt all over.

"Todoroki," Izuku said, pushing through his own misgivings. He figured he'd probably never get an opportunity to talk with the boy like this again. Todoroki seemed surprised that Izuku had said anything, and he quickly sat upright.

Izuku kept his gaze trained at the ceiling for just a moment longer, before looking at Todoroki.

"Do you really have a quirk?"

Todoroki raised an eyebrow at him, and Izuku seriously considered pretending that he was sleep talking. He cursed his treacherous brain – this topic seemed much less troublesome in his head just moments before.

"Um, I mean – " Izuku stammered, "you don't really have to answer that if you don't want to…I was just remembering the first few days since you transferred – "

"Yes, I do."

"Oh."

Well, at least he hadn't seemed to offend Todoroki. Izuku wondered if Todoroki would just leave it at that. If he did, Izuku decided he wouldn't prod, but he couldn't pretend that he wouldn't be disappointed.

The sound of wind sweeping through what must have been bamboo from outside the walls of the room echoed around him. Todoroki looked like he was trying to read Izuku's mind with the intense stare trained at him ( _great, back to this again)_. Izuku swallowed (painfully, thanks to his sick body), and, contrary to what he had just decided, prodded.

"What is it?"

He fully expected Todoroki to just up and leave, or if he was unlucky, maybe kick him out of the room, so it was a small shock when Todoroki instead just closed his eyes slowly, as if considering.

"I'll show you if you turn around."

Izuku wasn't sure what to make of the request, but he was far too curious to pass up the opportunity. He slowly flipped himself over as requested, and waited. A few seconds passed. Minutes. Hours it seemed, but the anticipation was probably just stretching time for him. He was about to turn back around to ask Todoroki exactly _what_ was supposed to happen, just as he felt something – fingers? – touch his nape. The pads felt strange – cool – and ghosted over his skin, as if asking for permission.

"Go ahead," Izuku mumbled into the sheets, his voice breathier than he had intended.

He heard his classmate inhale, and felt Todoroki's hands start rubbing at his nape. There was a cold about his hands that was strange at first, but not uncomfortable. If anything, it was almost soothing against burning fever he was suffering. Was this Todoroki's quirk then – cold hands?

"I can make ice," the boy answered, and Izuku cursed himself again for his inability to keep his thoughts in his head.

"Oh." He answered simply. Izuku didn't know how long they stayed like that, but he didn't think it was long before he felt the pull of sleep tugging at the edges of his mind as cool fingers rubbed tentatively on his neck.

* * *

It was sunlight hitting his face that roused Izuku awake this time around. He opened his eyes slowly, taking in the room around him. There were faint sounds of talking and laughter outside the room. It sounded like something from a television. Izuku jumped out of the futon in alarm.

 _What time is it? It's too bright to still be early morning! Am I late? Did I miss class? How long have I been asleep!?_

Izuku made a quick dash to the door, sparing just a moment to be thankful for the fact that he felt much better now than he had the previous day. Opening the door, he was greeted by the sight of Todoroki, in shorts and a casual dark blue button-down. Todoroki looked perfectly content as he sat on a pillow, eyes on the television, hand absently reaching inside a bag of chips laying on the short-legged table that was at the center of what seemed to be a living room.

 _Wonders never cease_ , Izuku thought to himself as he took in the sight. He'd never have imagined his classmate could look _relaxed_. Todoroki apparently noticed Izuku's entrance, and gave him a quick glance and nod before turning his attention back to the variety show on the television.

"It's good to see you're up."

"What time is it?"

Todoroki checked his phone on the table. "Just past one o'clock."

Izuku's knees wobbled a bit, and he let himself slide down to the ground, hand on his face.

"You…you…you let me miss school?" Izuku asked, careful not to sound too exasperated at the one who owned the house.

The only response he got from Todoroki was a hum, but it was all the confirmation Izuku needed.

 _Great. You missed the second day of class. Things are going so well, Izuku._ Izuku almost rubbed his face off.

As if sensing his frustration, Todoroki turned the television off and turned his attention to Izuku.

"Don't worry about it so much, I – "

Izuku looked up at Todoroki, not quite expecting the bashful expression on the boy's face.

"I told our teachers that you were sick, and I have all the work from school for you." Todoroki cleared his throat, apparently now finding the wall beside him very interesting with how hard he stared at it.

Well, Izuku much preferred that Todoroki glared at walls rather than at him. Anyway, it's not as if Todoroki hadn't made the right call – he's not sure he would have been able to go to school if he had tried to wake up earlier. Pushing his frustrations (mostly directed at himself and his immune system) aside, he sighed and tried to put on a smile at Todoroki.

"Thanks, Todoroki."

The boy nodded, promptly fixing his attention back at the half-empty bag of chips on the table. Izuku stayed where he was, seated near the door to the room he had stayed at, not entirely sure what to do or where to go. He entertained himself by looking around the living room. The walls were wooden and lined with paintings – _Aizawa's work? -_ and there were shelves scattered about the perimeter. A large portion of the wall behind where Todoroki looked like a sliding door to somewhere. Light shone from its translucent surface – did that lead to the porch where he met Aizawa? Upon recalling yesterday's incident, Midoriya found himself wondering where Todoroki's cousin even was, but before he could ask, his classmate spoke up.

"Midoriya, there's something you have to know."

Todoroki sounded much more serious now, and Izuku wasn't sure what to make of it. He nodded for his classmate to continue.

"Early this morning, there was a landslide near the area you pitched your tent at. Your tent was completely buried."

It took a few seconds for Izuku to digest what Todoroki had said.

The first thing that came to his mind was: 'W _ow, that was pretty blunt.'_

After that came a barrage of many, much more panicked thoughts, and he was pretty sure he was gaping like a terrified idiot. _I could have died! If I had slept away in that tent last night, I would be buried in rubble right now! Wait – what about everything that was in the tent? Damn, is my luck so bad that I would have lost everything within three days of my plan starting?_

"They're in those boxes over there," Todoroki said calmly.

"What?"

"Your belongings – most of what we could find, anyway – they're in those boxes over there," Todoroki clarified, gesturing toward a corner of the room opposite Izuku, where two brown boxes stood.

Izuku stood from his spot, and slowly made his way to the boxes. He wasn't entirely sure if he believed Todoroki – this could be some prank, or some trick, after all – it didn't make sense. How could they have gotten anything from his tent if it was buried? Why would they bother? And who was _they_ , anyway? Was it Todoroki and Aizawa?

He opened one of the boxes, half-expecting something frightening to jump at him, but saw only some of the towels and cloths he had packed in his tent, stacked on top what was probably his other belongings. Izuku wasn't sure how to react, still apprehensive.

 _If there really was a landslide, how was this possible? Was it the work of their quirks?_ Izuku looked through the boxes, trying to be organized as he transferred items onto the floor to see what things were placed further inside. He also rummaged his mind for ways Todoroki might have used an ice quirk to dig through an avalanche. _Or maybe it was Aizawa's quirk?_

He decided to ask about it when he ran into Aizawa again, _if_ he ran into Aizawa again. Izuku caught himself – in all his apprehension, he must have seemed a bit ungrateful. Regardless of how it happened, Todoroki (and Aizawa, if he was part of _they_ ) didn't have to do anything like this for an illegal settler like him.

"Thank you." He said softly, smiling at his luck ( _maybe he was getting lucky now?_ ). He still hadn't found the _one thing_ he was looking for, though.

"Todoroki, you wouldn't happen to have found a box wrapped in brown paper at my tent, would you?"

For all that Izuku hadn't looked at the photo, he didn't know what he would do if he had lost it. He knew he'd want to look at it one day, when he was in a better place.

Todoroki seemed to consider his question, scratching his chin lightly. Todoroki sighed, and though that was enough to answer Izuku's question, his heart still dropped when Todoroki spoke.

"I'm sorry Midoriya, I don't think we found anything like – "

Before Todoroki could finish, he was interrupted by a low explosion from outside, and, before either of them could react, what seemed like a battle cry, a loud rip, and the sound of wood breaking filled the room as something – _someone_ – came flying in through the door behind Todoroki. Izuku let out a yelp, and it was all he could do before he saw Todoroki calmly lean to his left, avoiding the intruder's flying kick. Izuku didn't know if Todoroki had meant for things to go that way, and part of him was hoping it was an accident, but Todoroki's dodge meant that the kick instead flew straight toward Izuku.

Izuku's hands tried to shield his head, and his back hit the wall behind him with a loud thud as he felt the intruder's foot clip his side. He heard Todoroki shout his name in surprise, but Izuku felt his head ache at the collision.

"Goddammit half and half, fight me!"

In the haze of the collision, Izuku had somehow landed on his back. He glanced up to see his attacker – blond hair, angry red eyes, black tank top – standing beside him, knees bent, looking ready to pounce again. It seemed that the boy hadn't noticed him at all.

"You're an idiot, and you're getting other people hurt." Todoroki sounded so…cold.

"You saying I'm stupid? What do you mean other – "

It was only then that the other boy seemed to notice the other figure sprawled on the floor beside him. He quickly shot a glance at Izuku and froze.

"…d-Deku?"

The blonde's expression was full of shock as he jumped away from Izuku like the proximity burnt him. _Deku? What was that supposed to mean?_

Izuku slowly tried to get up, thankful that his headaches were receding again. The blonde quickly turned to Todoroki, pointed at Izuku, and started screaming.

"What is _he_ doing here?"

Todoroki looked completely unimpressed as the blonde slowly approached him, shouting and pointing uninterrupted.

"Why is that any of your business?"

"Why don't you answer the fucking question?"

"Why don't you go back to the mountains? It's not like anybody missed you."

Izuku watched them go at each other. Well this was…odd? Did he know this blonde boy? Was he supposed to know this blonde boy? Come to think of it, something about him did seem familiar? Maybe he'd run into him at the mall once before? Beyond that, something about watching Todoroki and the other bicker seemed…familiar too – though that might have just been because they looked like children ready to start a brawl.

Without thinking about it too much, Izuku decided he'd try to step in and stop them from getting violent (well, _more violent_ than it already was).

"Hey, Todoroki, uhh…other guy," he said tentatively, taking a few steps forward. He doubted he was getting heard above the shouting match the two had engaged in. With a sigh, he walked on with more confidence, though he didn't get very far before tripping on one of the clothes he'd put on the floor as he was rummaging through the boxes.

"Did your stupid hair dye finally seep into your brain? What were you thinking bringing him here?" was the last thing Izuku heard the blonde shouting before Izuku himself let out an embarrassingly high-pitched squeal as he tumbled onto the two other boys. They all fell over onto the floor – or at least Izuku thought they did, but before he could check, there was some smoke – _where did that come from? Was there a fire now too? Great, cause that's exactly what the situation needed –_ and two loud popping sounds.

* * *

It was a comfort, Izuku thought grimly, that not many people had – to be able to pinpoint the exact moment their brains had given up and decided to go insane. It was a small comfort, but it was also the _only_ comfort he could hold on to as he looked with horror past the smoke that faded just as quickly as it had come.

An abandoned tank top on the floor. A blue button-down shirt slowly falling through the air. Empty clothes, and no sign of Todoroki, nor of the loud blonde boy, but –

A yellow cat, and a red rat, both somehow looking much more exasperated than any animal Izuku had ever seen in his life.

Different thoughts came slamming into his mind after a moment of gaping – the loudest among them made Izuku smile despite the chaos around him.

 _Could this be my quirk?_

"No, you useless idiot, you're quirkless, Deku!" the cat spat out.

 _Well that was mean, but how did he know I was quirkless?_

 _Also, wait...what? Did the cat just…just talk?_

Izuku was done. _Goodbye Uraraka and Iida, goodbye dreams of independent living, I'll see all of you at the mental hospital._

There was a loud sigh from his side. Izuku looked to its source, and found a red rat slouching. "You really can't shut up for even a few seconds, can you, you stupid cat?" the rat said.

Izuku's brain was starting to whiz back to life, dots starting to connect – if the cat was the one calling him _deku_ , then that must mean the red rat was –

Izuku's eyes widened, as he looked at the rat.

"Todoroki?"

All three of them – one boy, two animals – froze at the sound of another loud sigh, this time from the shattered doorway. Aizawa stood, wearing an all-black suit, plastic bag in one hand, the other hand pinching his nose lightly.

"I was gone for one hour. _One. Hour._ "

* * *

Autumn Leaves, Eddie Higgins Trio: watch?v=tAXjTnKQi8w


	3. Chapter 3

There were a few vacant moments before Izuku could recognize the man that had just arrived as Todoroki's cousin. With his clean-cut formal attire and his hair neatly tied, he scarcely looked like the same person – except for the dark circles under his eyes. He wasn't the only one who was at a momentary loss, either. The golden cat turned and hissed at Aizawa for a few moments before its expression changed to something closer to recognition (insofar as Izuku could read a cat's expression). In contrast, the rat-who-may-or-may-not-be-Todoroki looked ( _how were these animals so expressive_ ) nonplussed. He supposed it made sense because if the rat _were_ Todoroki, then he'd already seen Aizawa earlier that day.

Still, the cat was radiating aggression, but before it could make any further sounds, it was interrupted by two loud _pops_ and smoke washing through the room. Izuku turned away, trying to keep the blowing air away from his eyes, though he was thankful for the excuse to avert his eyes when he realized that the animals had been replaced by the naked form of the two other boys. No one spoke as the two retrieved their clothes and dressed themselves. Izuku was busy keeping his gaze trained at one of the boxes in the corner, hoping he wasn't as red outside as he felt. After a few moments, Izuku turned toward the sound of Aizawa taking off his shoes and stepping up into the room. The man sat himself down on one side of the center-table, retrieving take-out boxes from the plastic bag he held, arranging them neatly on the table – one on each side.

"Todoroki, if you could be so kind as to fetch us something to drink. Bakugou, there're some materials in the drawer near the television. Fix the door. Midoriya, come sit with me."

The stern tone in Aizawa's voice suggested it wasn't so much a friendly invitation rather than an order, and all three boys followed. Midoriya sat wordlessly across Aizawa. It was a few minutes before Todoroki came back, with a tray of glasses and pitcher of juice that he set down on the table, before taking his place on his own side of the table. The blonde boy – _Bakugou_ – glowered by the porch, working with nimble fingers to try to mend the large hole he'd kicked through the door. If the tension weren't so palpable, Izuku might have laughed – Aizawa hadn't even had to guess that it was the blonde boy that shattered the door, and the blonde hadn't seen it fit to argue.

Aizawa was giving him a quizzical look – whether to gauge Izuku's reaction to everything that had happened, or to dare him to break the silence, he wasn't sure. Still, the silence _was_ making him restless, he just wished someone would start explaining things to him. He decided to take the older man's _maybe-challenge_ to speak, but starting with something…less severe.

"You have a wonderful home," he said with a smile, kicking himself mentally because, _really, that's how you open_?

It must not have been a terrible choice, Izuku sighed, when Aizawa snorted out a laugh. The man seemed to relax, busying himself with disassembling his bento box, sorting through it with his chop sticks. Todoroki seemed less than relieved however, still sitting shock still on the side adjacent to Izuku. There was a slight chill in the air, and Izuku wondered whether it was Todoroki or the fact that the room currently had one less wall than usual.

"You've met Bakugou, then," Aizawa said, cutting through the tension. The blonde boy huffed from where he was crouched. Izuku swallowed, before chuckling nervously.

"It's nice to meet you, Bakugou."

The blonde winced as his name came out of Izuku's lips. _What is this guy's problem with me?_

"I understand you likely have a lot of questions, so let me explain some things first. You can ask for clarifications after."

That seemed to have gotten Todoroki's attention. The boy quickly turned from his unopened food, shooting a skeptical glare at his cousin. "In the mood for sharing, are we?" his classmate's tone almost threatening.

"Aren't I always?"

Aizawa didn't seem the least bit impressed by Todoroki's warning. He instead looked at Izuku, and Izuku nodded dumbly in agreement. "Good, where to start then?" Aizawa asked himself, stroking his chin.

The man spoke for quite some time, and it took a minute after he finished for Izuku to process everything he was told. By the end, Izuku had learned two things –

First, that Aizawa, Todoroki, and Bakugou were _all related_ , part of some big family.

 _Fine, nothing too out of the ordinary with that one, never mind that none of them seem to resemble each other, maybe it's just a very **big** family._

Second, that a select number in their family were cursed to turn into the animals of the zodiac upon sufficient physical contact with either someone who was of the opposite sex, or someone who was quirkless.

Todoroki looked constipated after Aizawa had explained that. Even Bakugou took time out of his renovation project to look at his cousin like he had grown a second head. Aizawa kept his gaze trained at Izuku, and Izuku would be lying if he didn't find the stare from the man's half-dead eyes intimidating. Still, he did his best to chew through the second bit of information.

 _A curse?_

Izuku liked to think that he kept an open mind – after all, in a world full of quirks, anything seemed possible – but…an _ancient zodiac curse_ was…a bit…

"…Ridiculous."

Izuku didn't mean to say it out loud, but it wasn't the first (nor would it be the last) time he'd put his foot in his mouth today. He heard what sounded like a breath of relief from the two other boys. Aizawa just raised a brow at him.

"What makes it so hard to believe?" the man challenged.

Izuku slowly let his hands drop back on the table, gathering his bearings. He probably should put more thought into his next words, or, at least more thought than just blurting out the first things that came to mind. Aizawa looked like he was _expecting_ something from Izuku, but what it was, he couldn't tell.

"Well…a _curse_ just seems a bit...excessive…You're pulling my leg, right? I mean, these could just be your quirks…" Izuku drifted off, wondering why _he_ was the one trying to convince Aizawa the story was ridiculous.

There was an _edge_ to the way Aizawa kept eye contact with Izuku's as he rebutted. "There have _never_ been any recorded incidences of people having multiple quirks that were completely unrelated. Also, identical abilities arising in related but mostly disjoint bloodlines goes against all understanding of quirks. If that weren't enough, transformations triggered not by the person's choice could hardly be considered their own quirk, even if – "

"Why are you trying so hard to convince him?"

The blonde's gruff voice rang through the apartment as all eyes went to him. Izuku wasn't surprised that the boy had interrupted – throughout Aizawa's attempt at arguing with Izuku, he could _feel_ the tension building up in both Bakugou _and_ Todoroki, and the blonde was clearly the more temperamental of the two. There was something desperate about his expression as his posture seemed stopped just short of tackling Aizawa; he looked like a completely different person than the one who was loudly stomping around the room less than an hour ago. For a second, Izuku imagined what Bakugou must have looked like in his youth, wearing a similar face of quiet distress. He found it wasn't an image he wanted to keep thinking about.

Izuku could see Bakugou trying to moderate his breath – _keeping himself calm,_ his mind added _-_ his posture sinking just the slightest as he exhaled. With a steadier tone, he continued.

"Why are you trying so hard to convince him, when we all know there's an easier way to deal with this?"

Izuku felt Todoroki freeze up beside him – not just figuratively – as their corner of the room suddenly felt a _lot_ colder than before.

"You know that's not our decision to make," Todoroki's voice answered, cool and distant. There was something downright confrontational about the way he looked at Bakugou now, so different from the dismissive looks he'd given the blonde thus far. The look Bakugou shot back was no less severe, and Izuku knew if things didn't calm down, they'd come to blows again, and their earlier scuffle would seem childish in comparison.

 _An easier way to deal with this…This? Were they talking about him? Curse or no, surely every family would have its secrets…They meant a real family right, not like a crime family –_

Izuku tried to be discreet as he looked around. The blonde _definitely_ looked like the criminal type, and Izuku didn't have to squint too hard to see it in Aizawa too. Todoroki didn't seem the type, but then again, it was always the quiet ones… _was Todoroki trying to freeze him onto the floor so he wouldn't escape?_

Izuku swallowed. He tried raising his hands weakly, hoping to appear unthreatening.

 _Keep your head, Izuku. Don't make them want to kill –_

There was a cough from across him, and Izuku just missed the chuckle it masked.

"We're not a syndicate, that's not what Bakugou was talking about," Aizawa said, not bothering to hide the amusement on his face.

Izuku refused to relax – this afternoon was proving a bit _too much_ for him. Come to think of it, he was at a _lone house in the middle of the forest,_ sat in a room with _two strangers_ , and one classmate who may as well have been a stranger too…not to mention one of the strangers _attacked them by surprise not too long ago_ …exactly _what was he supposed to make of the situation?_

"Regardless of what you meant though," Aizawa said, addressing Bakugou directly, "Todoroki's right. It's not our decision to make – I'll have to go to the main house tomorrow and ask _him_ about this."

Izuku saw Todoroki flinch at the mention of _him_ , and Izuku briefly wondered who that might have been referring to. Still, Aizawa's agreement seemed to have been enough to mollify Todoroki, and the boy looked away from Bakugou with a tired sigh as the temperature around them normalized. It took a few more seconds of Aizawa giving Bakugou a stony stare before the blonde backed away as well, choosing to continue with his handy at the door.

"Either way," Aizawa continued, looking back at Izuku, "the curse is true, and the convenience of truth is that it remains so, whether one chooses to believe it or not." Aizawa put down his chopsticks, and took a sip from his porcelain cup. "What _does_ matter, however, is your situation, Midoriya. Todoroki told me you've been living in the tent, which has since been destroyed."

With everything that had just happened, Izuku had almost forgotten about what led him to this place to begin with. Izuku decided to take a sip from his own cup, buying himself some time to think of what he was going to say next. He didn't have the chance to say anything, though, as Aizawa spoke again before he had even brought his cup back on to the table.

"It would be irresponsible of me to send such a young man to live out in the wilderness alone, so I'd like to invite you to stay here for the time being. It's not permanent of course, just one more thing I'd have to sort out at the main house."

Izuku's gut reaction would have been to stand up, thank Aizawa for the offer, and politely decline, but Izuku froze when Todoroki shot him a look that was so…. _un-Todoroki_. He almost looked… _hopeful_? The other boy seemed just as shocked too, quickly looking back down on the table with his more traditional blank look. Aizawa stifled a soft laugh as he went back to his lunch.

He chewed over the situation in his mind – and while he realized it _was_ a very good offer since he didn't really have a tent to live in anymore, it seemed _too good to be true_. _Was it really a good idea to just accept the offer to live with a bunch of strange men?_ Considering his other options, he replied with a sigh.

"That's very kind of you, and I'm very thankful, but only for a few days – I'd hate to impose any more than I already have."

That seemed to satisfy Aizawa, who absently nodded in agreement, busy picking at the vegetables in his box. For a while, they sat at the table silently, each eating from their own boxes, until Bakugou had apparently decided he'd worked enough or the time being, and plopped down on the side across Todoroki, opening his own bento box.

"How did you even know to get _four_ boxes?" Todoroki asked as he arranged his now mostly empty lunch container. Izuku found himself wondering how much bad blood there was between Todoroki and Bakugou since the way Todoroki asked Aizawa about that did little to hide his disgust. Something Todoroki had said the previous day came to mind - _"Cats are horrible, angry creatures. They don't deserve your pity."_ – and Izuku found himself wondering if maybe their ancient curse _was_ real.

Aizawa perked up at the question, offering them all an unnerving smirk. "I knew he was coming – though to be fair, I thought he was going to arrive yesterday. I saw that little drawing you left, but where had you gotten off to?"

The blonde looked disgruntled by the attention being placed on him, and he turned his head to the side.

"I – " the blonde stammered, "I had things to do."

Aizawa raised a brow at him, and the blonde noticed it too, getting fired up.

"What!? I have a life too!"

Izuku couldn't help but snort, and he wondered if Bakugou was always so easy to rile up.

"You! Broccoli head! Are you laughing at me?"

 _Broccoli head?_ Izuku ran his fingers through his messy green curls. It was Aizawa's turn to snort.

"Now, now, Bakugou, you've hurt his feelings. No need to get so – "

"I'm not mad! You're just fucking – "

Aizawa cleared his throat, interrupting Bakugou.

"Todoroki, would you show Midoriya to the guest room at the far end of the upper hall? I'd like to speak to our cousin privately."

Todoroki nodded, and signaled Midoriya to follow him. Midoriya did, but not before hearing the blonde grumbling about stupid cousins and damn quirkless nerds.

* * *

Izuku walked silently beside Todoroki as the boy led him to what would be his room, at least for the time being. His eyes darted back and forth, marveling at the house. Sure, it wasn't some grand villa, but it was a lot larger than it looked from the outside. Also, there was something elegant about its simplicity – the walls of polished dark wood that made up the house seemed like it was teleported through time, preserved from some long-lost era.

 _Long-lost era,_ Izuku mused, _maybe an ancient curse isn't so crazy after all._

The went up through a dimly lit stairway, and, upon arriving at the top landing, Izuku couldn't stop himself from gawking at what he saw.

A large wall housing an equally large painting of what could only have been the animals of the Chinese zodiac. Izuku paused, taking a moment to appreciate the work. It was…marvelous. Whoever made this had to have spent hours of labor. The scene depicted a garden, during what was probably meant to be spring, judging by the thick green trees in the background. All twelve animals were enjoying each other's company, with the image of their god looking on from the sky – long locks of warm white hair framing a kind, androgynous face. There was something in the corner, something that looked like it was creeping in from a dark spot in the forest, but before Izuku could take a closer look, he heard Todoroki's deep voice.

"Do you like it?"

Izuku turned to look at his companion, stood just a few paces ahead of him. The boy's sturdy expression betrayed some unease – was he nervous? To be fair, given everything that had happened today, being ill at ease seemed reasonable.

"Yeah, it's…it's…" Midoriya stammered, at an honest loss for words on how to describe the painting. He settled on giving an awed sigh and a smile, hoping Todoroki would be able to make meaning out of them. Luckily, Todoroki seemed to get the message. The answer seemed to satisfy him, and he looked like he released some of the tension in his posture.

"Aizawa's very good at painting," Todoroki whispered, almost too quickly, avoiding Izuku's gaze. After a pause, Todoroki slowly looked at him again and spoke.

"So…do you believe what Aizawa told you? About the curse, I mean?"

Izuku wondered at that himself. The painting was just _more proof_ that Todoroki's family had some sort of obsession with zodiac art and symbolism, though if decorative obsession was enough evidence for an _ancient curse_ , he wasn't sure.

"To be honest, I'm thinking _maybe_ it's not as ridiculous as I initially thought," Izuku wondered if that was the right thing to say, "but if it's true, your secret is safe with me." Izuku made a fist in front of his chest, hoping Todoroki could _feel_ that he was being earnest. Regardless of whether Todoroki's family was under some sort of curse or not, they were offering him help even when he hadn't asked – it wouldn't be right to repay their kindness with anything less than his best. Todoroki nodded, and turned away.

"Alright," he said plainly, "let's keep going."

They walked a few feet until Todoroki stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway just across the mural. He reached toward the handle and pushed it open, beckoning for Izuku to follow him inside with. The room was mostly empty – pushed on the far-end wall was a wooden bedframe holding a decent-sized mattress. There was a nightstand on one side, and on the other, in front of a large window, was a desk with a chair and drawers. There was a dresser on the right-side wall, with an empty bookshelf beside it.

"This is where you'll be staying," Todoroki said, pointedly not looking at Izuku, "there are probably clean linens in the closet over there, and you're free to put your stuff where you please."

Todoroki continued to talk Izuku through the house rules, but Izuku was busy trying to figure Todoroki's behavior out. He was getting just a bit frustrated because of how difficult to read Todoroki had been – if it wasn't death glares, it would be these strange, almost- _too-familiar_ -for-Izuku's-liking looks, and if it wasn't those, it's like Todoroki didn't even want to look at him at all, just like now.

"Todoroki."

That seemed to surprise the boy, abruptly cutting off his monologue on bathroom usage _(Izuku would have to ask him to repeat everything he said later, hopefully when he had a pen and some paper)_. Izuku had second thoughts about continuing, but as with things that had concerned Todoroki in the last twenty-four hours, _in for a penny –_

"Do you have a problem with me?"

Izuku winced at the sound of his own voice. Even to his ears it sounded much blunter than he would have preferred. Still, he figured that was better than the alternative – if he tried to skirt around the issue, he knew himself well enough to know he'd likely yap for a few minutes before losing track of the conversation all together. If they were going to live together, even for a few days, Izuku didn't want there to be issues he didn't know about, so he figured it was best to iron things out as soon as possible.

"What do you mean?"

Todoroki looked confused, still refusing to meet Izuku's gaze. Izuku kept himself steady, trying to figure out how to explain the rest without things getting too confrontational.

"I just," Izuku started, absently letting some of his hesitation break through, "it's just, for the longest time, all I've known you to do was glare at me, and then suddenly you help me out, and then there have been times in the past day that it seems like you just…can't even look at me, and I really have to wonder if…if maybe my being here is an issue? I don't know what it is that I've ever done to you, but if my being here is a bother, I'd just like to clear things up…I know I agreed to what Aizawa said, but if it was really a big issue to you – "

"Midoriya."

Todoroki's deep voice pulled Izuku out of his slight rampage. His eyes were stinging a bit but, _no, these are **my** issues, not his._

"I…I've never glared at you," Todoroki said, looking sincerely perplexed. Izuku gaped.

 _Is Todoroki suffering amnesia? Does the animal transformation affect brain capacity? In what world could Todoroki ever claim with full confidence that he hadn't spent the better part of the last year burning holes through my skull?_

"You….you've never glared at me," Izuku repeated slowly. Todoroki nodded, now looking at Izuku with what almost looked like concern.

 _He probably thinks I've been imagining things. But that's – that's not possible! Literally **everybody** knows glaring at me is the only hobby he seems to have. Am I supposed to believe that was just Todoroki's default expression?_

There were a few moments of silence – Izuku dumbfounded and unable to think of a follow up, and Todoroki just looking intently, maybe trying to remember a time when he _had_ glared at Izuku. Izuku waited for Todoroki to say something – anything – hoping that he would find even just one instance in his memories, _it shouldn't be that hard_ –

"No, I'm certain I've never glared at you."

 _So, yes, apparently Izuku **was** supposed to believe Todoroki's gaze was just naturally unfriendly, and always **naturally** trained toward him._

Izuku wondered if there was anything he could say to steer the issue without sounding overly sensitive as to the way Todoroki looked at him. That made him swallow – _maybe I should just spend less effort paying attention to how he looks at me?_

His classmate offered no explanations, no further commentaries, satisfied to let Izuku decide on his own, it seemed. Izuku briefly considered arguing some more, but thought it would be better to drop it for now, and figure it out later. At least he learned one thing – if Todoroki were being as honest as he seemed, then he wasn't out to kill him by glares, and didn't even seem to be aware of what he was doing. Izuku sighed softly, and raised one hand, offering Todoroki a meek smile.

"Okay, forget I said anything," Izuku started, and before he could think any better of it, he soldiered on. "Maybe just smile more?" He brightened his smile as best as his could, his eyes crinkling enough for him to miss the pink tint that flashed across Todoroki's face. He couldn't help but break into laughter when he opened his as, strangely enough, Todoroki seemed to _try_ to follow his advice immediately, morphing his face into what Izuku thought might be a smile - but it was all teeth, mildly robotic, and extremely off-putting ( _There's the family resemblance with Aizawa_ ). Todoroki seemed only momentarily disappointed that his attempt at smiling was being laughed at, but before he could comment on it, both their attentions were snatched by a loud explosion, the sound of wood shattering, and a string of expletives being shouted from the floor below.

 _Three guesses who,_ Izuku thought. He and Todoroki shared a look of understanding before they walked quickly back down to see what Bakugou's commotion _this time was about_.

* * *

"Motherfucker! Let me blow something up!"

"What has my door ever done to you?"

Izuku heard Todoroki sigh beside him. The door Bakugou had _just_ finished mending was, _yet_ again, scattered through the room. Aizawa, deadpan as his tone was, had his gaze trained at Bakugou, his eyes glowing an unsettling shade of red ( _where have I seen that before?_ ), long black hair raised around his head like some demonic halo. The blonde kept trying to make motions with his hands, as if he was calling on his explosions to come out, but none did.

"I'll only stop once you sit down." Aizawa said calmly.

"I'll stop once you tell me you're goddamn joking!"

Todoroki stepped forward, and spoke. "What's going on?"

"This old man's pulling my leg!"

Aizawa sighed, but didn't blink. _Don't his eyes hurt?_

"Bakugou's mad because I enrolled him in your school."

"You did what?" Todoroki's exasperated shout caught all of them by surprise, it seemed, and it was only a moment later that Bakugou was letting out loud explosions at the front lawn. Aizawa sighed, probably satisfied enough to let Bakugou go at it so long as he wasn't blowing the house up.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you're not too pleased, either, Todoroki."

Aizawa stood up and walked to the porch, before shouting to Bakugou.

"It wasn't my decision, you wild child. It was Shigaraki's."

The silence was sharp and abrupt as it came. Bakugou froze midway through punching into an explosion. Even Todoroki looked disgruntled. _Shigaraki – not a name I've heard before – probably someone important in their family if his decisions had weight? Was he the **him** from earlier?_

Izuku watched as the blonde's hands dropped slowly, along with the boy's head, his gaze only pausing briefly as he noticed a bracelet of brown prayer beads on the boy's wrist. _He didn't seem like the prayerful type, but who am I to judge_?

Bakugou's tone was dark when he next spoke. "What game is he playing at?"

Todoroki looked grimly at the distance, and maybe Izuku would ask him later who this Shigaraki was if just mentioning his name brought this kind of gloom. Aizawa shrugged. "I don't know, but he told me it was a game you set up."

There was a shout from outside, and Izuku realized it was Bakugou screaming into the forest, back to letting explosions fly free from his limbs.

"That little bitch! That asshole thinks he can play me? Fine, I'll show him!"

"So long as you fix the door before tomorrow," Aizawa said with a sigh, turning to Izuku and Todoroki. "Ah, Midoriya, I take it Todoroki's shown you your room?"

Midoriya nodded, wondering if they were just going to ignore the angry boy making fireworks outside the house. Aizawa seemed to notice his concern, and shook his head slowly.

"Just let him be, he'll get tired eventually."

Midoriya nodded again, pushing away the part of him that wanted to find out why the blonde always seemed so angry, at least for now.

* * *

The rest of the day was comparatively quiet. It was around half an hour before Bakugou got tired from his tantrum, and by the time the sun had set, he was sulking quietly at the half-fixed doorway. Izuku, at times, wanted to sit next to the boy and help him mend it, but every time he so much as _looked_ like he was going to approach, the blonde gave him a warning look and _hissed_.

 _Hissed!_ _Who does that_?

Dinner was also uneventful, and for that Izuku was grateful. Aizawa had taken the liberty of having food called in, and Izuku wondered if none of the others could cook – he hoped it wasn't the case because neither could he, and he wasn't looking forward to starving. Todoroki helped him bring the boxes of his belonging up to his new room, as well as set up the linens for his bed. They didn't talk much, but Izuku noticed the way Todoroki's expression seemed just a touch softer than he'd gotten used to seeing. He thought he might have even caught the boy trying to _practice_ smiling while he thought Izuku wasn't paying attention.

Izuku was finding there were many things that Todoroki had done that he should be thankful for. Aside from getting the papers from school he needed for the week, he'd also taken the liberty of charging Izuku's phone. Izuku hadn't opened it all day, however, figuring it'd probably be full of messages from Iida or Uraraka, and he wanted to clean himself up first before dealing with them.

He stepped into his room – and it was strange saying that it was _his_ room, really – damp curls dripping onto the towel draped over his shoulder. He was grateful that a lot of his clothes were inside bags and didn't get too dirty in the landslide – he'd ask Todoroki or Aizawa to show him his former camping site in the next few days to see if there were still things he could salvage. He tugged on a light grey shirt, relishing in the feeling of freshness he hadn't felt all week, and, with a sigh, sat down on the bed and turned his phone on.

He felt a tad bit guilty that he had waited this long to talk to his friends, since he was sure they would already be fussing, but it had been a long and _very strange_ day. Moments after his phone booted, it buzzed incessantly as message after message finally came in, all of them expressing varying levels of concern from Uraraka and Iida. Izuku smiled softly to himself, glad to have people that cared for him like they do. He opened their group chat and started typing.

 **Midoriya Izuku:** hey guys, im still alive no worries. Was a bit sick last night but feeling much better now ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

 **Uraraka Ochaco:** IZUKU! WE WERE SO WORRIED!

 **Iida Tenya** : Yes, we were most concerned. I admit I was quite surprised when it was Todoroki of all people that spoke up for you.

 **Uraraka Ochaco:** MmmMmmMmMmM

 **Uraraka Ochaco:** WHAT'S GOING ON

Izuku hesitated. He was probably going to have to come clean about what had happened – leaving the turning into animals bit out, obviously – but he figured it would be better to tell his friends he'd been living in a tent and was now staying with Todoroki in person rather than through text.

 **Midoriya Izuku:** its kind of a long story

 **Midoriya Izuku:** promise ill tell you tomorrow?

 **Midoriya Izuku:** im rly tired now ლ(｡-﹏-｡ ლ)

 **Uraraka Ochako:** MmmMmmMmMmM

 **Uraraka Ochako:** MmmMmmMmMmM

 **Uraraka Ochako:** MmmMmmMmMmM

 **Uraraka Ochako:** Fine but u better tell us

 **Uraraka Ochako:** And I better see ur butt in school tomorrow! ୧༼✿ ͡◕ д ◕͡ ༽୨

 **Iida Tenya** : Yes, it would be most unfortunate to miss so many days of school this early in the semester.

 **Iida Tenya** : I will pray for your swift recovery, Izuku!

 **Iida Tenya** : Rest well!

 **Uraraka Ochako:** GOOD NIGHT!

 **Uraraka Ochako:** (◞ꈍ∇ꈍ)◞⋆**✚⃞

 **Midoriya Izuku** : (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Midoriya couldn't help but laugh to himself – his friends were ridiculous, and he loved them immensely. He was lucky they let him off the hook tonight, though he'd have to think of a convincing version of his story to tell them tomorrow – one that won't make Uraraka want to bury him in a landslide herself. He sighed to himself, and reached to put his phone down on the bedside table, before his hand hit something.

 _Huh, there wasn't anything here before I showered_.

He sat up, and looked at the table, wondering why he hadn't noticed the parcel laying on it. He took it in his hands, almost dropping it with surprise as he immediately recognized the weight and feel of his mother's picture wrapped underneath an extra layer of brown paper. There was a small white sheet taped onto the back too, and sprawled, in illegible kanji with what seemed like a red crayon:

'Here you go. This is for you.'

Izuku's heart fluttered, and he could feel himself tearing up. He wondered briefly – _who found this? How? I thought it had been lost to the landslide?_

The only person he even brought this up with was…Todoroki? Had Todoroki looked for it without him telling Izuku that afternoon? Todoroki was the only one who knew about it, so that was the only explanation! He absently wiped at his damp eyes, wondering why Todoroki would do something like that. Izuku wondered if he was making up for those months of not-glaring at Izuku. He hugged the wrapped picture close to his chest, letting himself imagine it was his mom for just a brief second, before catching himself with a steady breath.

He set the parcel down on the table, settling himself under the covers soon after. He'd figure out a way to thank Todoroki in the morning.

* * *

Autumn Leaves, Chet Baker and Paul Desmond: watch?v=Gsz3mrnIBd0


	4. Chapter 4

_The crunch of crisp autumn leaves echoed throughout the park as Izuku looked around._

 _"Oh, I'm back here again," he muttered quietly to himself._

 _It wasn't just him and his mom this time, however. In fact, as he looked around, he didn't find any forms that remotely resembled his mother. Rather, the park was full of children, no taller than he was in the five-year-old form he so often found himself wearing in his dreams. The children ran around, scampering through the golden field, their mothers sitting on benches along the perimeter of playground._

 _This wasn't the first time Izuku had this dream, and he was sure it wouldn't be the last. The dream showed what he felt was the first time he realized he was going to be looked at differently by a lot of people. In the first times he had this dream, he tried, as he had when it happened, to go and play with the other children. Every time, without fail, he'd be interrupted by the whispers of the men and women watching from the periphery, imploring the other children to stay away from 'the poor, fatherless child.'_

 _It wasn't long until Izuku learned that it would hurt less to stop trying in this dream – to just sit down and play by himself, and hope that he'd awaken soon enough. Izuku plopped unceremoniously to the ground. He sighed, wondering why things turned out the way they did. He was pretty sure the other kids wouldn't have known about his family life, and at that age, none of them would have cared. Why was it that the grown-ups seemed to care so much? He'd spent many a dream-night thinking about that until he landed on the conclusion that the adults around them probably didn't mean to cause **him** any harm; rather, they were just looking after their own kids, in their own, maybe ignorant, ways. Kids could be cruel, sure, but it was the grown-ups that could be cruelest, even behind good intentions._

 _He busied himself by picking up leaves and sorting them out by the shade of their coloring. He held them in his hands, thinking that if he squinted a little, it seemed as if he was holding fire in his hand. Wouldn't that be a great quirk?_

 _He kept at it, not noticing that the playful running around him had turned urgent, more frantic. It was only when the park was seemingly empty that Izuku looked up from his leaf collection, sniffing in curiosity at a foreign scent permeating the air._

 _Sulfur. The acrid odor of flesh being seared._

 _Izuku blinked at that – how did he even know what that smelt like? He didn't have time to try to figure that out though, as when he had looked up, the form of a small faceless boy with an outstretched hand manifested._

 _Well, this is new, Izuku thought._

 _The boy stood still, apparently waiting for Izuku to reach out. Tentatively, Izuku raised his hand to meet the boy's. The two of them stayed frozen, hand in hand, for only a moment before a pair of eyes appeared on the boy's face. Izuku took an alarmed step back, breaking contact with the phantom._

 _The eyes – the eyes weren't human. They were large, with deep red irises, and black slits for pupils. Izuku felt his blood turn hot, and he felt more than saw the thick sheets of smoke that surrounded him and the entire park until it was completely enveloped in darkness._

The heat of soft morning light hit Izuku's face in streaks. It wasn't harsh enough for the sun to be too high in the sky, and his alarm hadn't sounded yet (at least, not that he knew), but he was thankful for the release from what was turning out to be a very frightening edition of his dreams.

 _Smoke. The smell of burning flesh._

Izuku scowled. If he focused a little, he could still smell –

His eyes shot open, realizing the smell wasn't just in his mind anymore. He bolted out of bed and raced past the door, where he could see billows of black smoke coming from the floor below. His mind went from lethargic to full alarm as he ran down the stairs, hoping against hope that he wouldn't find a large inferno below.

 _This entire house is a fire hazard!_ Izuku thought to himself as he rushed through the old wooden corridors, until he finally reached the source of the smoke –

There wasn't any fire in the kitchen, thankfully. Instead, the stove was encased in a large chunk of ice. Todoroki stood a few feet from it, mild alarm written on his face, hair disheveled so that the red and white blended to make his head almost pink. He was in boxers and a white tank top, and Izuku found himself staring. He had seen Todoroki in house-clothes just the day before, but he wasn't able to really absorb the image since he had been more worried about missing school at the time. The picture of Todoroki in his mind was always the one wearing a crisp school uniform with a perfectly done tie – it might take some time for Izuku to get used to seeing Todoroki so…cozy. One of Todoroki's hand was turned toward the frozen stove, while the other held a black spatula. Izuku stood rooted just under the doorframe to the kitchen. Todoroki slowly turned to him, cleared his throat, and spoke as if there weren't a glacier in the middle of the kitchen.

"Ah, Midoriya, did you want breakfast?"

Izuku stared, dumbfounded at the boy's composure.

"I'm afraid the stove is…umm," Todoroki stammered, "…it broke, you see…and…"

Midoriya confirmed his previous suspicions that none of his new housemates could cook, and found himself laughing heartily at the wake-up he'd received. Todoroki looked at him warily at first, but eventually relaxed into what might have been a shy smile. It was a few moments before Izuku could calm himself, and Todoroki looked away, sheepishly scratching at the back of his neck.

Izuku eyed around the kitchen, eventually landing on a bundle of bananas sitting on a counter away from the stove. "We could just have some fruit," Izuku suggested, grabbing the fruits. Todoroki nodded, sparing one last glance at the frozen kitchen appliance, before leading Izuku back into the living room with a sigh.

They sat on adjacent sides of the center table, just like the previous day, Todoroki quietly munching on his fruit.

"So…" Izuku started, hoping to get the boy's attention, "does that happen often?"

There was a split-second when Todoroki's steady demeanor betrayed some embarrassment, but he spoke steadily after swallowing.

"I don't cook often," he admitted, "Aizawa's usually in charge of breakfast. He and _Bakugou_ " - Izuku didn't miss the amount of venom Todoroki seemed to charge into the blonde's name – "had to leave earlier to finalize details for his enrollment."

 _That would explain why the house was so empty._ Izuku absently peeled his banana, wondering if Todoroki would answer if he asked why he and Bakugou hated each other so much. He decided against it, figuring he'd pried more than enough in the past few days. Besides, he had more important things to talk to Todoroki about.

"Todoroki, I wanted to thank you," Izuku said as he aimed a soft smile at the boy.

The boy stopped gazing at the distance, and his two-toned eyes met Izuku's.

"What for?"

"For getting my mom's picture for me…that parcel I mentioned yesterday before Bakugou came in. I don't know how you found it, but thank you." Izuku hoped his gratitude shone through. He looked down, smiling at his hands, missing the confusion that momentarily flashed on Todoroki's face. When Izuku did look up, what he saw was Todoroki smiling at the wall across him – smirking, more of – in a manner Izuku wasn't sure what to make of.

He looked like he was pleased at something, pleased in the way little kids were when they one-upped other children at the playground. Todoroki nodded slowly, as if incredibly satisfied.

"No problem. I didn't know it was your mom's picture, but it seemed to have meant a lot to you."

"It does…it's the only photo of her I could bear to keep," Izuku trailed off. He didn't want to start a crying episode so early in the morning, so he kept himself from oversharing. Todoroki wasn't the type who was too eager to pry or talk anyway, so it was probably all the same to him. The rest of the meal was silent, in a surprisingly comfortable way. It felt more like a quiet mealtime shared with a friend, and Izuku would never have guessed he'd find a friend in Todoroki, of all people. Well, at least he hoped this was the start of a friendship anyway, but Izuku was optimistic.

They separated only briefly to change into their school uniforms, before meeting back at the front porch to begin their trek to school. Todoroki may have raised an eyebrow at Izuku's sorry excuse for a necktie, but Izuku was glad that his classmate didn't say anything.

The walk to school was a lot less tense than the day before, and Izuku wondered at that too – how had things with Todoroki gotten so much easier? He wasn't about to question it, though, and while he doubted the boy wanted to hear him raving about his hobbies, he took great pleasure at how Todoroki seemed quietly content with listening to Izuku make small talk about the weather or the forest around them.

Just like last time, it was when they reached the main roads that Todoroki spoke up.

"Aizawa told me to clarify some things for you before we got to school today," he said, deep and low, like he really didn't want to do as he was asked.

Izuku nodded, but tried to reassure him nonetheless. "You don't have to, you know – "

"No, it's better this way. Since you know about our…condition, anyway."

"Okay."

"You already know about me and Bakugou. You probably have been wanting to ask, and yes, Aizawa's also cursed – he's the dog."

Izuku nodded again. Todoroki was right – he _had_ been wanting to ask, but was just too shy to ask Aizawa directly.

"Also, there are a few more of us in school," his classmate continued.

Izuku perked up with curiosity at that. That was a good explanation for why Todoroki and the other zodiac members were enrolled at their school – if the family had people on the inside, it would be easier to cover accidents up.

"There's Yaoyorozu, she's the pig. And Kayama-sensei, she's the tiger."

Momo Yaoyorozu had been his classmate a few times in middle school. She seemed like a nice girl, if a little reserved. She was hardly as quiet as Todoroki – she had always come off as friendly enough to the rest of the class, but when Izuku thought about it, he never really knew her to approach other people to eagerly. In any case, that explained why she and Todoroki seemed to always be together. Izuku had a hard time imagining Yaoyorozu as the pig of the zodiac, though. Rumors everywhere always indicated that she had her fair share of admirers, and she'd hardly be described by _anyone_ as a pig.

Nemuri Kayama as the tiger, on the other hand, he could see. Kayama sensei was their math teacher, famous throughout the school for her _mature_ appeal. Izuku wondered if Kayama was assigned to their class precisely because Todoroki and Yaoyorozu had been in it. How much hold did Todoroki's family have on the school?

Todoroki seemed content with how much he had revealed, and Izuku spent the rest of the walk thinking up how maybe the "zodiac family" controlled the school board, and wondering if Yaoyorozu or Kamaya-sensei would ever show him their zodiac forms. He followed Todoroki absent-mindedly, trusting that his classmate knew where they were going. He only started paying attention when they had made their way up the three flights of stairs leading to their classroom, and only because there seemed to be a commotion coming from their within.

"Get your feet off the table! You're disrespecting all the upperclassmen that have passed through these halls!"

"I do what I fucking want, four-eyes!"

"How dare you speak with such foul language, you – you hooligan!"

 _Hooligan? Really, Iida?_

Izuku shouldn't have been surprised, he supposed, as he and Todoroki walked into the room to find Iida standing stiffly over Bakugou, who'd gotten very comfortable in the seat in front of Izuku's. Iida had always been a sucker for rules, and while they'd had unruly classmates in the past, Izuku was sure none of them were quite as delinquent as the hot-headed blonde who sat with his feet resting lifted on his desk. He looked more like a gang member than a student, really, lounging about with his top shirt buttons undone and his tie nowhere in sight. The bickering teens turned toward the door at the sound of its sliding, and Izuku couldn't help but swallow at the tempestuous gaze levelled at him and Todoroki by the blonde. Izuku barely even knew Bakugou, had spoken all of ten words to him – why did Bakugou seem to have as much a problem with him as he had Todoroki?

"Deku," the blonde all but growled.

"Deku? Are you talking about Izuku? Izuku! You know each other?" Iida asked, something of relief in his voice. Izuku heard a sigh from Todoroki as Iida approached. "I'm not dealing with this," Todoroki muttered, successfully weaving past Izuku and toward his desk at the back of the room.

"Izuku, if you know each other surely you can talk some sense into your friend – "

"We're not friends!" the blonde screamed, now standing from the other side of the room. His outburst had Izuku inching back a little, and it even gave Todoroki reason to stop and watch the exchange carefully.

"Umm…" Izuku started, trying to string together words that wouldn't end up provoking the blonde, "he's right, I just recently met Bakugou – "

 _There it was again – the wincing whenever I'd say his name, what's that all about?_

He vaguely registered that Iida had started going on a tirade about proper decorum and usage of school facilities, a lecture neither he nor Bakugou seemed keen to listen to. Izuku was trying to figure out how he'd offended Bakugou, who now looked, for whatever reason, almost dejected. The blonde sunk wordlessly into his chair, sitting properly this time, and glared intently at the blackboard. Izuku wondered if it were possible to switch chairs with someone in class, but doubted that _anyone_ would be willing to swap with him and end up right behind their new, angry classmate.

It was still a few minutes before classes started, and since he had no plans of staying near the blonde for longer than necessary, he pulled at Iida's sleeve, interrupting his still ongoing speech, and led them to where Uraraka was sitting. Despite all the commotion, she didn't seem at all to have noticed Izuku's entrance or approach. Her entire attention was focused at whatever it was she was holding on her lap, under her desk. Izuku cleared his throat to get her attention.

Her head shot up, eyes filled with alarm, and there was little Izuku could do to stop the snort he let out. She looked like a child who'd been caught doing something she wasn't meant to. Iida noticed her panic, too, and raised an eyebrow.

"Ochaco, what are you hiding?"

Her eyes were the size of saucers at this point, and Izuku could see the effort she was exerting to try to put whatever it was under her desk into her bag.

"H-hiding? I'm not hiding anything!" She said unconvincingly, waving one hand around, the other obviously busy trying to make something disappear under her desk.

"You're not bringing contraband items to school ground, are you?" Iida asked, voice rising in alarm. Uraraka stood up on impulse, no doubt wanting to have Iida keep his voice down, but in her haste, she dropped whatever it was she was hiding. Izuku snickered to himself as he dashed forward to pick it up from the floor before she could stop him.

"No, Izuku, don't!" she shouted, fear marked on her face.

 _Nedzu: Detective Extraordinaire, Volume 19. An Adult Novel by Midnight._

It was a thin book, the cover featured some sort of animal – _a large dog? A small bear?_ – dressed in a waistcoat and slacks, running through alleys at night with an…. attractive, skimpily-dressed _woman_ slung on his shoulders.

"Izuku…" Uraraka said warningly, as Iida all but gaped at the novel in Izuku's hands.

"M-m-midnight?" Iida stammered, "isn't that a writer for erotic – "

Izuku had already turned to a random page, curiously reading whatever was written.

 _"Oh Nedzu, I'm so glad it's you."_

 _Yu Takeyama. Blonde. Voluptuous. It's been years since we'd gotten…acquainted. She flutters her eyelashes at me. Ha! Oldest trick in the book! Last time we met, she was also tied up, but for…very different reasons._

 _"I'm here now, Yu," I said, trying to reassure her. I knew she was playing a game, but for now I'd play along. I approach her slowly, reach out toward her ample bosom –_

Izuku slammed the book closed. He was sure even the tips of his ears were red, having been able to scan the rather _racy_ events that followed. Neither he nor Uraraka could look at each other as he wordlessly offered the book back to her. She took it and quickly hid it in her bag.

"I can't believe you read that!" Iida whispered, clearly embarrassed to even be anywhere near the book.

"It's – it's literature!" Uraraka retorted. "Wait a second," her eyes narrowed at Iida. "How do _you_ know about Midnight?" She smirked triumphantly, knowing she had succeeded in deflecting their attention.

It was Iida's turn to sputter. "Wh – what? It's because my – my brother, yes, my brother, you see – "

Uraraka's smirk darkened as Iida continued to make excuses.

Izuku was mortified. Sure, they were teenagers, but he'd never imagined _Uraraka_ to be the type – let alone rule-abiding _Iida!_ The bell rang before Uraraka could get Iida to incriminate himself further, and everyone else in the room scrambled to get back in their seats. Iida looked the most relieved that the interrogation would have to stop. Before Izuku could go back to his own seat, Uraraka tugged at his uniform coat.

"You still need to explain why you were gone yesterday, okay?"

Izuku offered her a meek smile. _Of course, she wouldn't forget_. "During lunch, okay?"

She nodded in agreement.

Izuku sat at his desk, quietly arranging all his school supplies, and pointedly trying to ignore the aggression radiating from the blonde boy in front of him. _He bounced back from pouting, then_. Their homeroom advisor would arrive any minute now, and Izuku decided to use the mean time to look around at who else was in their class. There were a few familiar faces – Itsuka Kendo and Neito Monoma had been his classmates once during primary school.

Toward the front there was also Denki Kaminari, with his trademark black-streaked blonde hair. He seemed to be friends with one of the people Izuku hadn't seen before, a girl with pink skin and hair, with large pure black eyes. She'd probably have looked creepy if she weren't so…pink.

A few rows behind him were Todoroki and Yaoyorozu. Izuku wondered if Todoroki had told Yaoyorozu about Izuku. Would she talk to him? Could they be friends now? In front of them, another new classmate: a boy with, surprisingly enough, the head of what might be a crow, or some sort of black bird.

Boisterous laughter from outside the room caught everyone's attention. The door swung open, and in came a man that looked more like a wrestler than an educator, with his impossibly broad shoulders, slick blonde hair, and striking blue eyes. The man was built like a mountain, and his voice was as large as he looked.

"Sorry I was away for a few days, but worry not students – I am here!"

Izuku was certain everyone was as dumbfounded as he was. This _giant_ couldn't possibly be a high school teacher.

"My name is Yagi Toshinori, and I'm so pleased to meet all of you!" he said with an infectious smile, punctuating his statement with another bout of laughter. Izuku couldn't help the smile that tugged at his face. There was something about this man that just seemed to _lift_ the entire room. He looked around to see everyone's previous confused expressions meld into once of excitement and awe. Except Bakugou anyway, who kept his scowl trained forward.

"I was out of the country for a teaching conference, which is why I missed the first few days of class. You can call me Yagi-sensei. I'll be your homeroom advisor as well as your English teacher. I look forward to getting to know every one of you!"

They went through some standard start-of-school activities – a brief roll call and setting up of house rules. Yagi-sensei mentioned they'd be electing officers in the coming weeks, but that was something they would deal with later. The man spoke confidently, keeping a large smile plastered onto his face the entire period. Izuku wondered what Yagi-sensei's secret was to be so radiantly happy – maybe he could teach Bakugou some tricks.

"Some of your other teachers in the past may have had you all introduce yourselves in front of class, but I'd like to involve your English skills in the activity too! It's Wednesday today; by next Monday, I'd like you all to submit a short essay that talks about you, and what you feel has been the most defining event in your young lives so far. All in English!"

A collective groan resonated throughout the class. More schoolwork so early in the semester was never appealing, and an entire essay in English even less so.

"Don't look so down, young ones!" the teacher said, clearly amused at their reaction, as he started gathering his belongings. "It won't be graded, I just want to get to know you!" he continued, as he walked out of the room cheerfully, just before the bell rang to signify the start of their next periods.

Izuku sighed to himself. He wasn't looking forward to having to write an essay in English, but if Izuku were being honest, he was probably better at the language than a lot of his classmates. His mother loved reading to him, and her love for stories and books was something he inherited, and he'd never restricted himself to just Japanese novels – there were too many English works that were important to the world, after all. So, it wasn't the language that worried Izuku about the essay, but the content.

 _The most defining moment in my young life?_

He didn't trust himself to write about his mom – it was still too fresh. That left him…well, nothing else to talk about, really. Almost everything about his life so far had been anchored on his mom. Hell, even how he ended up as friends with Iida and Uraraka, in a lot of ways, could be attributed to her.

"Stop muttering, Deku," a low guttural voice came from before him.

 _Right, I'm seated behind this piece of work._

Izuku sighed again, but that apparently served to egg the other teen on even more.

"Stop sighing like a middle-aged lady too, damn nerd." Bakugou's shoulders were clearly tense, and Izuku could almost see a slight tremble at how hard Bakugou was gripping his pen. Izuku was feeling a bit daring. Sure, he didn't want to physically fight with the blonde, but he wasn't just going to sit and shake at the boy's anger management issues.

"Why do you call me Deku?"

"Cause that's what you are. That's what your name is, right?"

"No, my name is Izuku Midoriya."

The blonde violently ripped a page off his notebook and scribbled something on it. Without turning, he slammed the sheet onto Izuku's desk. There, in almost familiarly illegible kanji, were two characters that could be read as 'Izuku', but now that he looked at it, it could also be read as –

"There. Deku. Do you understand now? Or do I have to spell it out for you again?"

Izuku gaped at the sheet. _Bakugou called me Deku the first time he saw me – before he even knew my name – this isn't a real explanation_. There were a lot of questions he had about Bakugou, and a lot of things weren't adding up at all. He tried running through everything that had happened since their first meeting the previous day, only to be interrupted by Bakugou slamming his chair back toward Izuku's desk.

"I told you to stop mumbling, are you deaf now too?"

Someone from the front cleared their throat. Izuku hadn't even noticed that their second period teacher had arrived and was eyeing the two of them warily. "Is there something the two of you would like to share with the class?"

Izuku swallowed, feeling his cheeks heat up in shame. Bakugou grunted, choosing to ignore the teacher and return his attention to his own desk. Izuku shook his head weakly, hoping it would be enough to appease their teacher. The last thing he needed was trouble so soon, and all because of the angry blonde boy.

The teacher returned to explaining their mathematics syllabus in a steady monotone, but Izuku could hardly pay attention. Bakugou was proving even more mysterious than Todoroki was when he first transferred, despite being much louder. Izuku wondered if there would be a time in the future when Bakugou would talk to him with more than just grunts and snide comments. Miracles happened, right? After all, he and Todoroki had somehow become _maybe-friends_ , right?

The next few periods went by quietly, Izuku working hard to ensure that he didn't provoke the wild animal in front of him. _Are cats usually this temperamental?_ Izuku privately hoped whatever it was that was between them could be resolved soon – he hated having to walk on eggshells around angry people. For the time being, Bakugou seemed intent on ignoring not just him, but everyone else in class. Some students nearby tried to chat him up in the breaks between classes, but he pointedly just put his head down – either to sleep or just ward them away. Izuku snuck a quick glance at Todoroki, who just shrugged and rolled his eyes. He was surprised, though, when he caught Yaoyorozu giving him a small wave and a warm smile.

 _Todoroki must have filled her in, then_.

It was already the period just before lunch, history with Kayama-sensei (who, Izuku reminded himself, was apparently part of the zodiac). He hoped it would go by peacefully just like the last few periods, without any more issues with his new neighbor, but unfortunately for all of them, that period was precisely when things took a nosedive.

The rest of the class was probably slow to notice since most of them were busy ogling Kayama-sensei. Izuku had been _trying_ to focus, fully aware that he had to catch up for what he'd missed the previous day, when his attention was caught by the sound of purring under his desk.

He looked up from his notebook, up at Bakugou rigid posture, and his eyes darted to the legs of Bakugou's chair. There was a small ginger kitten that had curled itself around the leg, sleeping with utmost satisfaction. A lone kitten was easy to miss (though he wondered how nobody noticed a cat jumping into the room), but soon, bigger cats were climbing through the windows beside them, and settling about Bakugou. Bakugou was _shaking restlessly._ There were whispers from around the rest of the room, as their classmates started taking notice. Kayama-sensei raised an eyebrow when she saw the litter of cats surrounding Bakugou, but just smirked and carried on with the lesson.

It was obvious to Izuku that Bakugou was doing everything he could to keep facing forward. _He probably can't wait to be able to scream and shout and throw a tantrum at all the animals around him_. Uraraka was gaping at Bakugou, and Iida was doing a relatively good job of ignoring Uraraka prodding him from behind. The pink girl and Kaminari were unsuccessfully hiding their sniggering. Izuku tried looking back at Todoroki, only to find him and Yaoyorozu both pointedly _not_ looking at Bakugou, their hands both glued to their foreheads. Izuku couldn't help but giggle at how exasperated they both looked.

"Deku, shut your trap."

Before Izuku could reply, he felt a tug at his coat from the student beside him – a girl with short dark hair and strange wires attached to her earlobes. She was also doing a poor job at hiding her giggles as she pressed a sheet of paper onto Izuku's desk.

Izuku opened the sheet, and read it. His only mistake was muttering what was written under his breath.

 _Who would have thought angry boy was such a furry?_

"I'M NOT A FUCKING FURRY, YOU SHITTY DEKU!"

Before Izuku could even blink, Bakugou was on his feet, spitting obscenities at his face while cats of different colors and sizes all bolted out the window. Bakugou's table had been flipped to the wall, and his hands were letting out small dangerous sparks at Izuku's desk. The room echoed with laughter at Bakugou's tantrum.

"B-Bakugou, it was only a joke," he tried, full well knowing how weak his excuse sounded.

"Joke my ass! You all havin' a good time laughing at me, huh?" Bakugou glared hotly at the rest of the class. Kayama-sensei still looked like she hadn't recovered at the initial shock from Bakugou's outburst. Most of the class kept laughing, and after a while, Bakugou started looking less angry and more embarrassed. Todoroki and Yaoyorozu looked on with stern expressions. Izuku wasn't sure what to say – their classmates probably _were_ just joking, but Izuku knew what it felt like to be in a room full of people who just laughed at you. He felt a pang as he saw Bakugou's distressed expressions; the boy resembled a cornered animal at this point, and it hurt to look.

"Bakugou…" Izuku whispered, absently reaching out to try to calm the boy down. Bakugou noticed his hand approaching and slapped it away. "I don't need _you_ giving me that look, useless nerd!"

Kayama-sensei seemed to have regained her composure, as she shot a steely look at Bakugou. "Katsuki, that's quite enough – "

"Don't tell me what to do, Kayama!"

Most of the class didn't know Bakugou and their teacher were related, so they probably thought he was being incredibly disrespectful. Most of the class shut up at that, shocked at their classmate's audacity. Bakugou just swept a last glare at all of them before running to the side and jumping out the window.

* * *

Les Feuilles Mortes, Yves Montand: watch?v=Xo1C6E7jbPw


	5. The Letter

Izuku was on his feet before he even knew it, the screeching of his chair the only sound that pierced through the thick silence that had blanketed the entire room. From the window, Izuku could just barely spot a head of wheaten hair dashing through the school courtyard. He let out a breath – at least Bakugou didn't seem to have gotten hurt from his jump. _Cats always do land on their feet, huh?_

"Did he – did he just jump out from the third floor?" Izuku turned to see that Kaminari had joined him at the window. There was a sigh from the front of the room from Kayama-sensei, and the sound was enough to jolt most of the class out of shock and into fits of murmurs. Kayama-sensei looked utterly resigned as she aimed a pleading look at Todoroki.

"Todoroki, could you…?" her voice drifted off before she finished her question, though the intent was clear enough. Todoroki looked at her awkwardly for a few moments, as if asking _why **he** had to go find Bakugou. _After a few tense moments where Izuku thought Todoroki might refuse, his classmate skulked off his chair and out the door. Izuku didn't miss the irritated look on Todoroki's as the boy walked out just a few moments before the lunch bell rang.

"You're all dismissed for lunch, class. Don't follow his example." Kayama-sensei gathered her belongings and left the classroom without any further words.

Izuku found himself looking out the window in thought, just vaguely registering that Kaminari had slowly backed away to chat with the pink girl at their seats. _What had gotten over Bakugou? I mean sure, the class was kind of being jerks, but was that kind of scene really necessary? Would Todoroki be able to find him? What would Todoroki do if he finds Bakugou – there not exactly friendly after all…_

He felt a hand gently land on his shoulder, pulling him out of his thoughts. Izuku looked, expecting maybe Uraraka or even Iida to have come to call him, but instead found himself staring at Yaoyorozu.

"Don't worry about him too much."

Izuku wasn't entirely sure if she was referring to Bakugou or Todoroki, though if she knew how they interacted, it wasn't impossible that she was talking about them _both_. Just the thought of what exactly Todoroki would do when he did find Bakugou gave him shivers.

"Has he – has Bakugou always been like this?"

Yaoyorozu gave him a strange look, raising an eyebrow ( _why does everyone in their family raise their eyebrows at me?_ ). She sighed, and answered, "As long as I can remember, yeah."

Izuku absently chewed at his bottom lip.

"Hey, Yaoyorozu," Midoriya started, hoping he'd get an answer, "why do those two hate each other?"

Yaoyorozu pulled her hand off Midoriya's shoulder, and moved forward to lean at the window.

"It's complicated…and not my story to tell."

All things considered, Izuku wasn't too shocked that he still wasn't getting answers. Yaoyorozu turned at him, this time with a small smile.

"There's not too much we can do about those two idiots, unfortunately, but I am glad to have gotten a chance to finally speak with you."

Midoriya blushed a bit at that, the realization that this _was_ the first time they've ever talked dawning on him. He would have found it funny - had it not been so embarrassing - how just being reminded about the fact caused him to regress into old nervous habits.

"Ah – ah, right, yes, umm…hello, I'm Izuku, it's nice to m-meet you," he said, trying to return her smile, and _wow, up close, she really was pretty_.

Yaoyorozu chuckled a bit. "You can call me Yaomomo."

Izuku felt his ears heat up – _Yaomomo_ seemed like too familiar a nickname. He hadn't done a lot of talking to girls before…did they usually let you call them by their nicknames? Well, he always talked to Uraraka, but Uraraka was, well, _Uraraka_! _Does she even count as a girl?_ Izuku couldn't even get himself to call her _Ochaco_ , and here was Yaoyorozu asking him to call her _Yaomomo_? Maybe it's a name she preferred? Or maybe –

"Aren't you just precious," she laughed, "Yes, it is the name I prefer."

Izuku rubbed behind his ears, relieved that Yaoyorozu – _Yaomomo_ – didn't seem too put off by his muttering. He perked up as he heard his name being called from the door – Uraraka, most likely – he _did_ have a lunch appointment to keep with his two best friends. Yaomomo seemed to have heard as well.

"Don't let me keep you, but before you leave – " she leaned in closer, and Izuku tried not to get too flustered, "Todoroki asked me to tell you he'd like to walk back to the house with you later. He'll wait at the school gates after classes."

Izuku nodded, not trusting his suddenly dry mouth.

* * *

"You've been making a lot of new friends, mister," Uraraka elbowed Izuku as he caught up to her and Iida outside the classroom. "First Todoroki, now Yaomomo!"

Izuku smiled sheepishly at Uraraka. "I only just talked to Yaomomo today."

"Well, I'm sure how exactly that came up is only one of the many things you'll be explaining today," she said sweetly. Izuku wasn't fooled – under that saccharine tone was a core of steel, and he knew she was done letting him off the hook. The walk to the cafeteria was spent with Uraraka restarting her interrogation of Iida and how he knew Midnight, and Izuku was glad to have even just a little more time to gather his thoughts uninterrupted. He felt wholly unprepared for the coming conversation. Would they be mad at him for lying? Would they think he was stupid for his choices? He knew, rationally, that they likely wouldn't want to stop being friends just because he kept his situation from them, but knowing didn't help stop from fearing it.

"-zuku? Earth to Izuku?"

Izuku blinked at Uraraka's hands waving in front of his face. They were seated at a table, and there was food in front of him. Had he really zoned out _that_ long?

"Izuku, I must express my concern at your current behavior," Iida said as Uraraka deftly ducked under the arm Iida was animatedly swinging around, "are you certain you're not still ill?"

 _Yes, I'm still ill - as a matter of fact, I think I need to go to the nurse riiiight about now_.

No, Izuku decided to himself, he had to face this. It would only get harder and harder to explain the longer he waited. Surely, his _best friends_ would understand, right? It was hardly his fault that his own father never wanted him –

"I-zu-kuuuuun~~~"

Uraraka's sing-song dragged him back to reality for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day.

"No – I'm not – I mean…I feel fine, Iida, thanks."

 _Okay, honesty was going well so far_. Iida spared him a last searching glance before nodding and leaning back into his chair.

"Good, so now you can tell us what's been going on with you," Uraraka's voice was no longer coated in pretend-cuteness, but was instead just pure sincerity. He felt instantly guilty (well, _guiltier_ ) _for_ all the lying he'd done to his two friends.

He imagined how simple it would be to just spill his guts about everything that's happened. " _So, remember when I told you that I was living with my dad? I was kidding, he never actually replied to my attempts at contacting him. I've been living in a tent for a few weeks now, and recently moved to a forest which apparently was owned by Todoroki! Crazy coincidence, right! One thing led to another and I'm living with him and his cousins now…well at least for the time being."_

In his imagined scenario, Iida would laugh good-naturedly, and Uraraka would shake her head with a smile. _"Oh, is that all?" she would ask teasingly as she patted his shoulder, "mystery solved, then! Let's all eat!"_ Izuku would sigh in relief, and smile as he dug into his lunch. It would be such a great way for the whole thing to blow over, rather then –

 _"Why didn't you tell us? Don't you trust us?"_ Uraraka would level him a questioning glare. _"Yes, Izuku, this is most alarming, and I do not approve in the slightest,_ " Iida would scold him relentlessly. _"I-it-it's not that I don't trust you, I just…I didn't want to add to your burdens…"_ Uraraka would laugh coldly, _"Oh please, Izuku, you're already a huge burden, what's a little more_ – "

No. That wasn't what would happen. They were his best friends – they didn't think he was just a burden, right?

Right?

Izuku swallowed, looking at Uraraka and Iida patiently waiting for him to start speaking. He looked at the concern in their eyes, and in that moment, he knew what he had to do.

* * *

"My dad's house was being renovated, and he apparently knew Todoroki's cousin, and I'm staying with them for a while."

* * *

 _BUUUUUUZZZZ. WRONG ANSWER. That was **not** what Izuku had decided_, he berated his traitorous mouth.

His lips didn't show any signs of hesitation as it continued to weave a tale of how his father had ended up sending him to the Todorokis, even as his mind was running its own separate marathon trying to figure out why he wasn't just telling his friends the truth.

 _What am I doing!? I-I want to tell them the truth! I can't keep running away from things I don't want to face, I can't keep – except…I can run away, at least from this one, right?_

Izuku didn't consider himself a coward – sure he was scrawny and wouldn't have put much of a fight in a brawl, but he liked to think he had _some_ tenacity, judging by how often his foot was in his mouth when he talked to Todoroki. He didn't _enjoy_ making up bullshit tales and hoping his _best friends_ would believe it, but what choice did he have when the alternative was possibly making Uraraka and Iida feel like bad friends for not having done more to help him? He _couldn't_ do that to them, they were the most amazing people he'd ever met, he didn't want to just be another burden to them. He just had to suck it up, keep his problems under control (and keep them _exclusive **his**_ ).

His self-rationalizing had allowed him to feel a bit better by the time he had finished his "explanation." Iida's hand was on his chin, while Uraraka mouthed an 'oh,' as if all the secrets of the universe had just been revealed to her. He felt a bit disgusted at himself for all the crap he'd just spouted, but he pinched his thigh and assured himself that _this was for the best, they didn't need to know._ Knowing would just make them _all_ feel bad.

Uraraka hummed in contemplation. Iida was the first to speak up.

"We must visit, to inspect that your living conditions are acceptable."

Uraraka jumped up. "Yes, absolutely! Let's!"

Izuku's eyes almost popped out of his head.

 _They wanted to do **what!?**_

Izuku started waving his hands in front of him, hoping he didn't look nearly as panicked as he felt.

"I-I- I don't think that's such a good idea, guys, the house is…um….old! Yeah, it's old! And—"

Uraraka eyed him as she leaned toward his personal space, and Izuku instantly feared whatever she was going to say next.

"Why so nervous, Izuku?" she wagged her eyebrows suggestively, her voice low and husky, "Are you hiding something? What do you and Todoroki get up to in that house, all alone, all by yourselves?"

"Wh- what?" Izuku stammered in the moments before he realized what Uraraka was trying to imply. He felt the blush on his face reach down to his neck – no, his _hips_ – as he covered his face with his hands. Uraraka's laughter felt far too loud to his hot, ringing ears. Iida seemed to have caught on to what Uraraka had said too.

"Uraraka, that-that's-th-that's- you've been reading far too much Midnight!"

He could hear Uraraka heaving for breath in between her laughs. "Well, it would explain why Todoroki's seemed a lot glare-y and more relaxed, wouldn't it! Those glares were sex eyes all this time!"

 _How had she gone from point A to point B – had Uraraka always been this…this…crass? Those novels were a bad influence on her!_ Izuku paused, eyes wide in horror as the last part of Uraraka's declaration went into his mind. _Todoroki said he's never glared at me – could it be that…were those his…sex eyes?_

If he could, Izuku was sure he would have combusted already. His life was already far too complicated to even consider the completely insane notion of Todoroki's _sex-eyes_. He'd never even thought about the boy _that_ way, and he wasn't sure he _ever_ wanted to.

* * *

An indeterminate amount of blushing later, Izuku heard Uraraka's laughter and Iida's stammering dying down. There was a poke at his arm, no doubt Uraraka trying to get his attention. He raised his head slowly, helpless to the thankfully small blush that he still wore.

"It's-it's not like that, okay," he said, voice rougher than he wanted. "I'm still not even sure if Todoroki and I are friends."

Uraraka's expression softened at that, and Izuku appreciated the visible effort she exerted to keep from teasing him about his new housemate.

"Okay, you know I was just kidding. But we're serious," she said, looking briefly at Iida, "we want to visit soon to check how you're doing."

Izuku wondered if he could weave another story to keep them from visiting, but knew better than to add to the growing pile of lies he had to keep track to when it came to his best friends.

"I'll ask about it."

Uraraka squealed, and Iida started listing things he wanted to ensure were present in Izuku's current abode. They chatted some more after that, Iida _still_ vehemently denying that he ever read the Nedzu series, while Uraraka exclaimed how difficult it was to believe that Bakugou, Todoroki, _and_ Yaomomo were related.

Izuku looked wistfully at his best friends. What did he do to deserve them? They deserved _a lot_ better than the Izuku that just kept lying to them.

* * *

["Paging Midoriya Izuku, Paging Midoriya Izuku. Please report to the faculty lounge in the second floor, please report to the faculty lounge in the second floor. Paging Midoriya Izuku – "]

Izuku tinkered with his chopsticks for a few seconds before realizing that it was _his_ name being called on the PA system. He looked up to find similarly surprise looks from his two friends.

"They're calling _you_ , right?"

"Yes, that is his name, if I'm hearing it correctly."

Izuku knitted his brow, trying to think if he'd done anything worth being called to the faculty lounge for. The only thing he could think of was missing school the previous day, but he somehow doubted that was big enough an issue for it to be announced on the PA system. He shrugged at his friends.

"I'll see you in class in a bit, I guess," he muttered, gathering his tray and walking away from the table as his friends nodded.

* * *

Izuku played through some possible scenarios of what this could have been all about as he made his way to the second-floor faculty room. This was very strange – the last time he'd been called to the room was when his – well, the last time he was called to the room, they hadn't used the announcement system. It was in the middle exam week, and a teacher had just entered their room with a slip. What could it be that it seemed the school couldn't wait for class to start again so they could discreetly pull him out?

In what felt like almost _too_ little time, he found himself in front of the unimposing door to the faculty lounge. _Well, at least face **one** thing head on today, Izuku_.

He opened the door slightly, sticking his head in to check if there was anybody inside. He could hear fingers typing on keyboards across the different cubicles in the room. Someone from a cubicle near the door stood up – Kayama-sensei – and she smiled at him in recognition.

"Midoriya," she said, as she gestured toward a hallway to the left, "your homeroom advisor is waiting for you in the room at the end of that hall. Look for the door labeled 'Yagi.'"

Izuku nodded, pushing down the desire to ask her if she'd heard from Todoroki or Bakugou at all throughout the lunch period. He walked quietly, not wanting to disturb the teachers who were working inside as he looked for his homeroom advisor's office. It thankful wasn't too difficult to find, having been at the very end of the hall, just as Kayama-sensei described. After a moment of hesitation, he gently knocked at the door, and asked if he could come in.

"Ah Midoriya, the door is open, please come in," he heard Yagi-sensei's voice muffled by the door.

With a last long breath, he reached for the door handle and gently swung it open. Yagi-sensei smiled at him from his desk, facing the doorway. There was someone who sat across his advisor, who also turned toward him as Izuku peaked inside. His stomach dropped, and he knew there was no way he could be mistaken – he'd _seen_ the pictures – and he knew that the man was none other than –

 _"Dad?"_

* * *

The Letter (The Arbors): watch?v=q6gpzBBuKpk


	6. Chapter 6

The silence was viscous – tar that threatened to bind them in place. It made Izuku want to fidget out of his skin, away from the man sitting across him.

 _Dad._

 _Father._

 _Papa._

 _Daddy._

Even in his mind, the words felt sour. The words had never belonged in Izuku's lips, _never really_ , and for all that the man in front of him might have been his flesh and blood, he was _no_ father.

Izuku stared at the floor, at his shoes, at the scars on the leg of the table, _anywhere else_. Distantly, he wished that Yagi-sensei hadn't excused himself after the first sign of awkwardness, assuring him that they needed only to step out to call him once they were finished. He wondered how strange he and his dad must have looked. He wondered what his dad had even told his teacher. Did Yagi-sensei know about his mother? Did his father tell him that this was the first time they've ever met?

"You've grown, Izuku."

First time they've ever met, and the man acted like an uncle he simply hadn't seen in months. Izuku couldn't help but let out a bitter chuckle. He dared to look up and meet the face of his 'father.' He appeared younger than Izuku had imagined. The pictures he'd seen were taken before Izuku was even born, but it was almost as if the man hadn't aged more than five years since. Izuku pouted, something like anger bubbling in his belly – his mother had _never_ looked as young and carefree.

He resembled his father, that was certain from the head of wild, curly hair they shared, though his dad's hair was black while his own was a deep dark green. The man even had a spattering of freckles across his cheeks. Though Izuku and his mom sported chubby childish faces, his dad was all angles and lines; severe features that Izuku admitted were handsome.

He wondered if he'd look like _that_ when he got older. He wondered if his mom had found the sharp features attractive once upon a time. He wondered if his dad saw himself in Izuku. He wondered if his dad saw _mom_ in Izuku.

"Dad," Izuku all but spat out, not trusting himself to address the man by any other title, "what did you tell my teacher?" Izuku wondered if he sounded as cold as he felt.

His dad seemed to chew his cheek for a moment.

"The truth."

He said it like it was the simplest thing, and before Izuku could help himself, he was sitting up, tension threatening to snap him apart. He wanted to shout, scream, throw something – _anything_. He'd spent many sleepless nights considering what might happen if he met with his father. In the simplest of his fantasies, the man would be cold and unkind, the very image of indifference. It was the simplest because it would have made the most sensible story. The most painful scenarios were the ones where his father would be apologetic, and look at him with eyes that spoke of regret and a desire to mend things. The man's actions had isolated Izuku from other children for a good chunk of his childhood, and caused his mother to cry herself to sleep weeks at a time. This man _left_ them, ruined their lives before Izuku's had even begun. It had always been so easy to vilify the man, and Izuku would be terrified to have to face the reality that he was anything more than a villain.

It would have been so easy to stand up and walk out. He didn't need this man – this _stranger_. He and his mom had survived long enough on their own. Izuku was alright even _without_ his mom. He was _okay_. He was _great_. He didn't need any -

The man – _Hisashi_ – looked away, his soft voice cutting through Izuku's thoughts like a guillotine.

"I've been looking for you, you know."

 _What?_

Hisashi slowly turned his head, meeting Izuku's confused stare with an almost earnest expression.

"I…yes, I did run away at first," he said, lowering his head, "your mom – _Inko_ – and I were so young…and I was already engaged. But a week after she told me she was having you and I walked away, I _knew_ I had to make things right…I was wrong to run away, and I tried to reach out to Inko, but she wouldn't let me." The more he spoke, the more his confidence seemed to grow. "She stopped returning my calls, she never wrote back, I – I didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl."

"You – you're lying," Izuku stammered, resisting the burning sensation behind his eyes. Why cry? It was obvious the man was making stories up? This didn't make any sense. It was a very strange thing to live your life so certain of something, only to suddenly be told that you were wrong, and so sincerely. It was like going to school one day and hearing everybody talk about how beautiful the purple noon sky was when all along you were _sure_ it was blue.

You wouldn't believe them…not immediately anyway, but the seeds would be planted, and sometimes, that was all it took.

They spoke for a while longer after that. Well, Hisashi – _dad?_ – explained himself further, and Izuku did little but nod vacantly, too overwhelmed by this 'alternate history' suddenly being thrust into his previously clear narrative. If his dad were to be believed, and Izuku wasn't completely sure he trusted the man anyway, then his mom had been the one who insisted that his dad stay away from them, despite him reaching out to offer presence and support many times throughout the years.

Would his mom have done that – deny him of any semblance of a father figure? Why would she do that? Did she really hate Hisashi so much for hiding he was engaged that she'd turn away any help he offered? His mind was abuzz with questions, hypothetical situations, anything and everything to try to reconcile the Hisashi he'd met in the office with the Hisashi that had always existed in his and his mother's history. His dad at least seemed to understand that Izuku needed time to process. He settled on giving Izuku his mobile number, with the instruction of texting him before the weekend if Izuku was okay with meeting him and his wife on Saturday evening to discuss further details – details like letting Izuku stay with them, treating him as part of their family.

Izuku was in a daze as he watched Hisashi and Yagi-sensei shake hands, before taking his own leave to go back to his classroom to attend his afternoon classes, not feeling the weight of red eyes watching him and his father exit faculty lounge from the trees by the corridor windows.

Izuku probably should have felt bad about missing most of his classes, having arrived halfway through the last period of the day. But, as he presented the slip Yagi-sensei had given him to his teacher, he couldn't help but be thankful that he could at least avoid Iida and Uraraka's barrage of question. He had lied to them enough today, and Izuku wanted nothing more than to run back to the house in the woods and curl in bed to think everything in his life over.

Bakugou's seat in front of him was empty, and a quick glance back showed that Todoroki's was also vacant. Izuku let his mind wander away from his own issues, considering instead where those two had ended up. It wasn't long before Izuku was fully zoned-out, his mind filled with distant vestiges of faceless five-year-old children and fields paved with blazing leaves. The end-of-school bell rang, shocking Izuku back to reality, and he all but bolted out of his seat, pointedly ignoring the shouts of his name from Uraraka and Iida. Explaining today's behavior would be the problem of future-Izuku, he decided.

Izuku was close to the school gate when he almost tripped over his own feet at the sound of his name being called by a deep voice from behind. To be honest, Izuku had forgotten about walking home with Todoroki today. Izuku slowed his gait to let the boy catch up with him; if nothing else, Todoroki would make a good excuse for his abrupt exit if Uraraka or Iida asked.

"Where've you been?" Izuku asked, desperate to distract himself. Todoroki let out a tired sigh as they started walking side by side.

"I spent the rest of the day running around campus looking for the damn cat. Complete waste of time."

Izuku hummed sympathetically, though he wasn't too interested in asking anymore about today's cat and mouse chase. Rather, he was debating if he should talk to Todoroki about his father's visit – Todoroki was one of the only people who knew about Izuku's real circumstances, and Izuku sure could use someone to talk things over with…but the ease between the two of them was still so _fresh_ , and Izuku wasn't sure if he wanted to bring such a volatile topic up.

"I heard your name on the announcement system during the break," Todoroki said, the decision apparently taken away from Izuku's hands.

Izuku let out a sigh, and nodded, vaguely wondering if Todoroki would pry. Secretly, he almost _wished_ Todoroki would pry so that Izuku would be able to rationalize talking about his dad. The boy, however, was less meddlesome than Izuku ever was, and said nothing. A more reasonable Izuku might have been more thankful that Todoroki wasn't pushing, but all he felt was disappointment. Izuku's mind was a maelstrom of contradicting frustrations - he _wanted_ to talk about it, but also, _not_ talk about. Somehow, his mind comprehended that as a desire to try to maneuver into the topic like a drunk driver.

"So…Todoroki, you have a dad, right?"

Todoroki's footsteps came to an abrupt stop, and Izuku didn't have to turn to him to know he had a brow raised in question.

"I…uh…yes?"

Izuku wanted nothing more than to get swallowed by the ground. _Do you have a dad? What kind of question was that? Todoroki wasn't some fruit that just fell off a tree!_

Trying to recover from his own stupidity, Izuku pushed on. "Could…could you tell me about him?"

Izuku wondered what he was trying to accomplish. It wasn't as if his other friends didn't have dads – Iida and Uraraka had never avoided gushing about their great, loving dads, after all.

"No."

Todoroki's voice was cold and final. Izuku ventured to look at his classmate to find that he was stiff, glaring at the trees to his side. It was then that Izuku realized that asking Todoroki about his dad might have been a _terrible_ idea, and _wow_ , what he would give to have a time-travelling quirk. A few tense moments passed as they both stood frozen on the pavement that melted forward into dirt paths. Todoroki shot him one last final _look_ that had Izuku wincing and stepping back.

Todoroki's eyes softened at that, and he cleared his throat.

"My dad and I…don't see eye to eye. I'd rather leave it at that," he said, as he coolly strode past Izuku, and into the forest.

 _You and me both_ , Izuku thought, as he scrambled to follow the boy before he got lost in the woods.

The rest of the walk was filled with stunted attempts at conversation – mostly Izuku trying to get past his previous blunder by offering what little of the last period he paid attention too. It wasn't too long before the house was in sight, and Todoroki took a sharp intake of breath that had Izuku shooting him an alarmed glance.

"I'm going to kill him," Todoroki whispered.

Izuku followed the direction of Todoroki's murderous glare to the roof, over the house and to the roof, where a figure lay in the golden sunlight, school uniform wrinkled, and a white cloth draped over his face.

"Is – is that Bakugou?"

"I'm going to kill him for making me miss lunch."

Todoroki stomped into the house, Izuku running to keep pace. Aizawa was sprawled on the living room in a handsome grey yukata, charcoal pencils and papers scattered around. Aizawa leveled them with a stern gaze.

"Would anyone care to explain why there's an angry boy sunbathing on my roof?"

"Bakugou's an asshole," Todoroki answered, loud enough to make sure he was heard all the way to the roof.

Aizawa pinched his nose as he sat upright. "What happened?"

"I'm going to go make some tea," Todoroki declared as he sauntered off to the kitchen, ignoring Aizawa and leaving Izuku to explain.

Izuku gently dropped his bag down, and sat across Aizawa. He allowed himself some time to look at the rough sketches littered around the table – _was that some sort of rabbit in a waistcoat?_

"Cats came up to him during class, and our classmates found it funny…" Izuku wondered if that would be enough. Did he have to mention Bakugou's outbursts or his acrobatics? There was a rough sound as Aizawa dropped back onto the floor, shutting his eyes forcefully.

"I should have known something like this would go wrong."

Izuku peeked at Aizawa, who suddenly appeared far too young to have to deal with today's episode of teenage school drama. "Has this happened before?"

Aizawa snorted. "The animals, or the running away?"

"The running back home."

Aizawa turned to his side, resting his cheek on his knuckles. "Oh yes, you have no idea. Did you know, just before last summer, that brat suddenly decided to flee into the mountains?"

 _The mountains?_ Izuku's mind was filled with scenes from survival and wildlife shows, now featuring the blonde boy clad in an adventurer's hat, snake wrapped on his shoulders, wearing a sharp toothy smirk. Against his will, Izuku felt himself coloring – the image had its _appeal_.

"At his old schools, did this also happen?"

Todoroki came in with a tray of cups and a pot of tea, his deep voice answering Izuku's question.

"He used to be homeschooled. We all did."

Izuku accepted the warm cup Todoroki offered him. Homeschool was such a foreign concept to Izuku. He'd always assumed Todoroki had come from some rich private school before transferring to Musutafu, but the reality was apparently even more interesting.

"Still, Bakugou was never any good at making friends," Aizawa said, "that apparently hasn't changed."

"Big surprise," Todoroki scoffed.

Aizawa hummed, unimpressed. "You're hardly one to talk, are you?"

Todoroki's answer to that was a pronounced eyeroll and a long sip from his cup. He let out a big sigh, one Aizawa shared.

"I know it's not in your nature, Todoroki, but could you antagonize Bakugou less?"

Todoroki gave an offended look at Aizawa. "I'm not the one always picking fights."

"That's true," Aizawa said with a resigned expression, "he…he has a lot of growing up to do."

That, unsatisfactory as Izuku found it, was apparently the end of all conversation on Bakugou. Did they always just leave him whenever he was in his moods? Or maybe they'd tried before but got tired of it? Izuku hummed to himself softly, deciding that if his cousins weren't going to try to reach out to Bakugou next time he went into a slump, Izuku would.

Tea was finished in silence except for when Aizawa started asking why he came home to a frozen kitchen, barely hiding the amusement on his face. Todoroki blushed and apologized, and there was a collective understanding that they'd all need to learn how to cook sooner rather than later. Dinner (Aizawa had taken the liberty of getting food delivered) was uneventful, aside from the distinct absence of an angry blonde at the table.

Bakugou aside, things were mundane – you really wouldn't even know the house was filled by people who allegedly lived under a curse were it not for the undeniably strange, almost distant, family dynamic they all had. Izuku was mindful of how he moved, and nobody was turning into animals against their will. This was a life he could get used to, he found himself admitting as he mopped the kitchen floor which was wet with just-recently-melted ice. He didn't allow himself to dwell on those thoughts for too long, though, since he knew that the arrangement he had with Aizawa was temporary – a week or two at best – and that wasn't even considering the uncertainty brought about by the sudden appearance of his father.

It was around seven in the evening when Izuku finally found himself freshly showered and sitting at the desk in his room, pen and paper in front of him. After having shot a quick message at Uraraka and Iida that he just suddenly wasn't feeling well that afternoon, and that Todoroki had promised to walk him home (which resulted in some very _inappropriate_ responses from Uraraka), he wanted to get a head start on the assignment Yagi-sensei had given them.

Izuku bit at the tip of his pen as he stared at the sheet of paper that was blank outside of a header that read 'the most defining moment in my young life.'

The staring went on for quite a while, Izuku's mind drawing complete blanks on anything he might have wanted to write about. After a good two hours of scribbling potential topics and promptly scratching them out with exasperated sighs, his mind treacherously drifted into decidedly more pressing issues, issues that he wasn't sure if he wanted to avoid or ram through.

His phone stared at him menacingly from the corner of the table, taunting him with the contact details of the father he never thought he'd meet. The potential meeting with his dad and the _other_ family weighed heavily on Izuku's mind. Was that something he wanted to try? What would it be like to live in a house with a big family? Was the other family even big? How would they treat him? Would Izuku call them brother and sister? Would he have to call his dad's wife – Izuku swallowed – _mom_?

Izuku's mind ran circles around itself, and as he propped up his elbows and rested his forehead on raised hands, he slowly drifted into fitful and dreamless sleep.

The sensation of falling was what jolted Izuku awake, along with a sharp ache on his face and the thud of another body tumbling onto the floor. A split-second later had Izuku's mind whirring back to life, and it didn't take too much guessing to determine who the other body belonged to, based on the stream of low curses being muttered somewhere beside Izuku, who found himself and his chair toppled onto the cold wooden floor.

"B-Bakugou?" Izuku said, eyes widening as he took in the disgruntled appearance of the blonde boy braced on the floor some distance beside him.

"What gives, green bean? Why you sleepin' on your desk?"

Izuku let out an exasperated huff. "Why were you swinging through my window?"

"It was the shortest path back in!" Bakugou retorted, as if Izuku was stupid for not figuring that out.

"Why couldn't you just go use the front door!?"

"Did you want me to slip off the roof and break my neck, huh?" Bakugou shot him an accusing glare, one which Izuku, after having been on the receiving end of a flying foot, was all too happy to return. _So much for not antagonizing him._

"Don't cats always land on their feet?"

Bakugou clearly hadn't been expecting that kind of response, and his glare broke as he looked away.

"Your nose is bleeding, idiot," Bakugou muttered. Izuku was confused for a few moments before he became all too aware of the liquid sliding down his face. He scrambled up gracelessly, nearly tripping on the fallen chair, searching madly through the table drawers for a roll of tissue with one hand, the other busy pinching his nose.

"That's because you kicked me!" Izuku tried to say, though he wondered how intelligible it sounded through his muffled breathing. Bakugou groaned, nudging Izuku's crouched form with a foot as he reached out with an unfolded white handkerchief in hand.

Izuku stared at the piece of cloth, confused.

Bakugou tensed, as he started shouting. "What's with the look! It's clean, you dumbass!"

Realization came over Izuku, as he gingerly took the fabric from Bakugou's clenched fist, using it to wipe the blood staining down his lips. "Thanks," Izuku said softly, looking up to find the blonde staring at him as he wiped. _Did it look **that** bad?_ Izuku wondered, taking moments between dabs to inspect the cloth.

"What were you even still up about?"

Bakugou sat on the floor with crossed legs, back to the bed, picking at loose threads on his school pants. His words weren't the roars that Izuku had come to expect from the boy, and he suddenly registered to Izuku as much less threatening – almost childlike in his demeanor. Izuku sighed, righting the fallen chair, and letting himself plop down on the floor opposite Bakugou, knees drawn up and with his back leaning on the wall.

"I was thinking."

"Did it have something to do with that guy at the faculty room?"

Izuku brows flew, and Bakugou must not have been planning to say that as his entire body froze just as it left his mouth.

"Wh-what guy?" Izuku said, trying to feign confusion.

After a moment of silence, Bakugou's expression hardened, and he shrugged in a gesture of indifference. "Candy cane told me you were called to meet with someone over the break."

 _Candy cane…Todoroki?_ The cogs in Izuku's minds were hard at work connecting dots, and it didn't take a lot to figure out Bakugou wasn't telling the truth – Todoroki didn't know about his lunchtime meeting, and given how the two of them were, even if he did, there was no way he'd just go and share that information with Bakugou.

If the scowl Bakugou had was any indication, then even _he_ knew that excuse was flimsy, and Izuku was going to call him out.

"Have you been watching – "

"So, is it what you've been thinking about?" Bakugou interrupted, clearly uninterested in having to divulge how he found out.

Izuku inhaled deeply, letting the hand that had been nursing his nose drop, relieved that the bleeding seemed to have stopped. The strangeness of the situation wasn't lost on him: sat on the floor with a someone who'd spent the better part of their interactions cussing at him, and here he was, considering just coming clean to Bakugou about meeting his father. He _had_ been itching to talk things over with somebody, having failed disastrously with Todoroki earlier. Also, he could later blame the fact that he got kicked in the face. Satisfied with his exercise in rationalization, Izuku nodded.

"It was my dad," Izuku said, the word 'dad' still feeling wrong on his tongue.

Bakugou shot him a doubtful look. "I didn't know you had a dad."

 _Same_ , Izuku mused.

"What the fuck did he want, then?"

"To meet me?" Izuku answered weakly, unsure of his dad's true purpose himself. "To talk to me? To take me home? I don't know…" he drifted off, letting his head rest on the arms that had circled his knee.

"Take you home?"

Izuku hummed. "He said I might be able to live with him and his family."

" _Might?_ He wasn't even sure? Your dad sounds like an jackass."

Izuku couldn't help but giggle. "Probably is," he said, darting up to shoot a weak smile at Bakugou, "but if it works out, I'll stop being such a bother to you guys, right?"

Izuku couldn't place the expressions that crossed Bakugou's face after he said that. Next thing he knew, Bakugou had shot up forcefully, glaring as his mouth opened to form various words but never committing to any. Izuku got on his feet too, scared that he'd have to figure out how to mollify Bakugou very soon, but the storm never came – Bakugou's temper withered as quickly as it threated to come once the boy's eyes landed on the side of Izuku's table, where he kept his necklace next to the wrapped picture of his mother.

"My mom told me those used to be prayer beads," Izuku said, hoping the sigh of relief at not having to deal with an angry Bakugou wasn't too loud. A few beats passed, and Bakugou was still stuck staring at the beads, his hand reaching to touch the bracelet on his wrist.

"I know."

Bakugou exhaled, and Izuku watched as he walked to the door, confused at Bakugou's answer. The blonde didn't seem bothered, at least until he just reached the door, where he stilled, his back turned to Izuku pulled taut.

"I – " Bakugou started, "If you need someone to talk to about your dad…or whatever the fuck…you can…with me…yeah, you get it, right nerd?"

Absently, Izuku hummed in agreement, hid mind plunged into further disarray with no end in sight. He gathered himself as best as he could so that he could say something – _anything_ – in response.

"Th-thanks," he paused, "Good night, Bakugou."

" _Katsuki._ "

"Wh-what – "

"Call me Katsuki. _Please_."

Izuku didn't have a chance to see the expression on the blonde's face as he pulled the door open and fled, but he was sure his own face was completely flushed.

* * *

The Letter (The Box Tops) : watch?v=HIWY8UyW9bw


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